Duo held for duping man of over Rs 10 lakh posing as bank officials

The Delhi Police arrested two impersonators who allegedly duped a man of Rs 10.64 lakh posing as bank officials, an official said on Thursday.

The duo, identified as Shankar Dan (27) and Pradeep Kumar Dan (26), both from Jharkhand, an officer said.

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On June 30, a complaint was filed in which the complainant alleged that he received a call from a man posing as an SBI officer. The caller informed him that his check had bounced and sent a link via WhatsApp, claiming it had a picture of the check.

On clicking the link sent by the caller and installing an APK file, the complainant found nothing as described by him, the police said.

After suspecting something wrong, he immediately disconnected the call, deleted the file, and turned his phone off. But as soon as he restarted the device, he began to receive alerts for unauthorised financial activity.

Two of his fixed deposits with Rs 5.62 lakh and Rs 4.54 lakh had been prematurely closed, and Rs 48,600 had been credited to Google Ads from the complainant’s Bandhan Bank account.

With this information, an FIR under sections 318(4) (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 319(2) (cheating by personation), and 340 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) was registered.

The amount was subsequently utilised for payments towards an Axis Bank credit card and Google Ads services.

On the basis of technical analysis and data acquired from BillDesk, it was found that a particular mobile number and device were active in the area of Dhanbad, Jharkhand.

Further analysis confirmed that the alleged calling number was also operational in the same area.

“While probing into this case, it was found that the OTPs were silently diverted to an alternate number through unauthorised access that was enabled through the malicious app,” Amit Goel, Deputy Commissioner of Police, said.

After days of searching, Shankar was arrested in Dhanbad along with four mobile phones, including the one used to contact the victim.

During sustained interrogation of the accused and the leads gathered led to the arrest of his associate, Pradeep, from West Bengal’s Tarapith.

Pradeep was allegedly in possession of the device used to carry out financial transactions through BillDesk, the officer mentioned.

“We even conducted raids in several cities of Jharkhand, including that of Bokaro, Ranchi, and other parts before the arrest,” DCP Goel added.

“During sustained questioning with the duo, Shankar disclosed that he used Amazon Pay to identify potential victims. He randomly entered mobile numbers into the Amazon Pay app, which revealed the bank associated with each number,” he asserted.

Adding to his statement, he said, “Based on this information, he contacted the victims, impersonating a bank representative or manager. He would inform the victims about fabricated issues such as KYC updates, credit/debit card problems, or check bounces.”

Shankar handled calling and targeting victims while Pradeep operated the BillDesk platform to transfer the stolen funds to prearranged credit cards. These cards were either issued in fictitious names or sourced through accomplices, the police said.

The stolen money was then withdrawn through third-party apps like CRED and MobiKwik or used to purchase gift cards and digital services.

Amid the probe into this case, it came out that Shankar allegedly had earned about Rs 5 lakh from this operation and received 50 per cent of the stolen amount. Pradeep allegedly admitted to receiving a 20 per cent share.

Moreover, it was found that they functioned from forested and low-network areas near their village to evade being tracked.

However, Shankar has a history of crime, as he was involved in two cybercrime cases and a murder case, while Pradeep is involved in a murder case.