LUCKNOW: The cyber cell of the UP police on Sunday arrested two persons, including the kingpin of a gang involved in duping retired government officials of their pension deposits. The gang members identified as Pramod Mandal and Mantu Kumar used to call their ‘target’ posing as officials from the treasury department to seek details of their bank accounts.
They were arrested from Kolkata and are natives of Jharkhand. The two confessed to have illegally withdrawn over Rs 20 crore from accounts of victims across 15 states in the last two years. The police also recovered SIM cards, bank ATMs and bluetooth sound systems from their possession.
The cyber cell undertook the probe after receiving complaints from retired police pensioners. Pensioner Chhote Lal was duped of Rs 11 lakh, while Ram Lakhan Chaudhary Rs 10 lakh and Udayveer Singh Rs 10 lakh. They were defrauded within a span of three months. It was not just police personnel who were duped, but also retired officials from other departments. Similar complaints were reported in the district cyber cell units of Lucknow, Hardoi. In Lucknow, a retired secretariat official was deprived of Rs 53 lakh.
Additional director general of UP cyber cell Ram Kumar said Pramod Mandal was the mastermind against whom 36 cases of duping retired government officials were filed. Kumar said the arrested duo used to call their targets while impersonating themselves as treasury officers looking for the pension and other allowances that a retired employee used to get from the department. “They took details of bank accounts and ATM passwords from retired officers. Thereafter, the money was transferred in e-wallets which they encashed,” said Kumar.
Another official said each member of the gang is assigned a particular work like getting fake bank accounts opened, procuring fake SIM cards, making calls to victims, informing about police movement and bank related work. They were given the share of money as per the importance of their work. The police said Pramod had formed a gang employing several of his kin and his distant relatives.
