On the pretext of renewing an insurance policy, the men took Rs 6 lakh from a 70-year-old.
Three men have been arrested for allegedly impersonating as RBI officials and duping a senior citizen in Noida of Rs 6 lakh on the pretext of renewing his insurance policy, police said Wednesday.
The accused have been identified as Brajesh Kumar (26), Awadhesh Kumar (31) and Praveen Kumar (30), they said. They were held Tuesday night from Khoda area.
Robin Majumder, a retired NTPC official had informed the cyber cell of the Noida Police that some RBI officials had called him up to say that his insurance policy has lapsed and needs to be renewed, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ajay Pal Sharma said.
"He said the accused told Majumder if he wanted to save the money spent in insurance and also get an additional Rs 2 lakh in return, he must remit Rs 6 lakh," Sharma told reporters here.
Mr Sharma said the accused had asked 70-year-old to deposit the money in a private bank account number in three to four installments. In May, when Mr Majumder called up on the phone number to check for the status of his policy, nobody received the call.
Mr Majumder filed a complaint with the cyber cell, which probed the matter and tracked down the culprits, the SSP said.
During interrogation, Brajesh Kumar, the main accused, who belongs to Kannauj, said he worked in a placement agency in Noida which shut down last year.
"Awadhesh worked with Brajesh in the same placement agency, while Praveen was known to Awadhesh outside work. When the agency shut down, a mobile phone and a SIM card of it remained with Brajesh. Together they used the date collected by the agency to call up random people with the same insurance policy plot to dupe them," Sharma said.
"They used to call up people and tell them that their insurance policy has lapsed. They would then ask them to pay some amount to get it renewed and also assure them of doubling the money," he said.
The police said Brajesh Kumar is a science graduate from the Kanpur University, while Praveen did his master's in zoology from Deshbandhu College of Delhi University and Awadhesh dropped out of school after Class 10.
After getting the money, the trio would distribute it among themselves, with Mr Brajesh keeping half of the amount and Awadhesh getting 30 per cent and Praveen getting 20 per cent of it, the police said.
They said they have frozen the bank account of Praveen, which had Rs 3 lakh of the duped amount, while search was on to recover the remaining money.
The mobile phone and the SIM card used by them have also been seized, the police said.
A case against the three has been registered at the Sector 58 police station under the Indian Penal Code Section 420 for cheating and Section 66 of the Information Technology Act for online fraud, which may draw a punishment for up to three years in jail and a fine up to Rs 5 lakh.
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