ATM cards, SIM cards, mobile phones, laptop, Rs 50,000 in cash were recovered: Police (Representational)
The Delhi Police's Crime Branch has arrested five men for allegedly extorting money from an insurance policyholder by posing as government officials, officials said on Thursday.
The accused have been identified as Junaid (24), Rahul Singh (30), Naveen Kumar (24), Sumit Sharma (31) and Mohd. Shadab Khan (35), they said.
A probe was initiated into the matter on August 17 after a complaint was received from the deputy director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) regarding fake summons received by a man, the police said.
During inquiry, it was found that the victim had made investments in different policies from 2013 onwards. Eventually, he started receiving calls from a mobile number and the caller asked him to pay the advance tax for policy clearance, senior police official (crime) Rajesh Deo said.
The victim deposited a total of Rs 10,60,000 as advance tax in a bank account of the accused on different occasions. Later, the accused impersonated officials of the ED and the Anti-Corruption Bureau and started intimidating the victim to extort more money from him, he said.
To prove their credentials, the accused persons also sent summons to the victim purportedly issued by the ED. The victim contacted the ED in this regard and found out that the summons was fake, he added.
Investigation revealed that the accused were using forged identity proofs and operating from Kaushambi in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad. They were using different ATM booths to withdraw the money. An analysis of the call detail record and CCTV footage from the area led to their arrest, Mr Deo said.
"During interrogation, we found that accused Rahul Singh was operating since January 2019. Earlier, he worked as an insurance broker with a Noida-based company. His associates Shadab and Junaid were also working there. When the company was shut down, they stole customers'' data and used it to cheat people," Mr Deo said.
Soon Naveen and Sumit also joined the gang, he added.
ATM cards, SIM cards, mobile phones, a laptop used for making forged documents and Rs 50,000 in cash were recovered from the accused, the police said.