One more person arrested in Sirmaur's Rs 40-lakh online fraud case

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The Himachal Pradesh police has arrested another accused in the Rs 40-lakh online fraud case registered at Shillai Police Station here, officials said Sunday. A special investigation team (SIT) of Sirmaur police arrested the second accused, Satyajit Majumdar, from Kolkata in West Bengal, Sirmaur Superintendent of Police Rohit Malpani said. The SIT sought transit remand for Majumdar from a local court in 24 Parganas of Kolkata, he said, adding that the accused was granted interim anticipatory for transit and was directed to be present in the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Paonta Sahib on November 16.

Earlier, Subrata Sarkar, alias Rocky, was arrested by the SIT from Siliguri in West Bengal in October this year in connection with the online fraud case registered under section 420 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) on November 25 last year at Shillai Police Station, where it was alleged the accused promised fake jobs in multinational companies (MNCs) outside India to unsuspecting persons, he added. The entire fraud was estimated to be of around Rs 40 lakh.

Sarkar's five-day transit remand was obtained from a local magistrate in West Bengal and the SIT returned to Sirmaur with the accused on October 28, he added. After obtaining his police remand from a Sirmaur court, Rocky had been taken to Kolkata to arrest other accused gang members, following which Majumdar was nabbed, Malpani said The crime took place in 2015-2016 when the complainant was allegedly duped of Rs 40 lakh in phases through fraudulent e-mails, he said.

The complainant is a native of Shillai but was working in Jammu and Kashmir. Sarkar, along with the other accused, was operating a website -- Techno International Group registered on GoDaddy.Com, he said. Around 21 ATM cards, details of four bank accounts, two PAN cards, a Aadhaar card, laptops and seven mobile phones were seized from the accused, he added.

"A joint team of cyber cell and Shillai Police Station had gone to Kolkata a month ago to trace the criminals and dig up details on them. The team did not disclose their police identity and posed as insurance agents during the operation," he said. The accused real name is Subrata Sarkar and not Aarnav Singhania which he used when cheating people, Malpani said. The main accused was picked up from Siliguri after raids were conducted in Srirampur, Kolkata and Siliguri.

The gang has expertise in making fake bank accounts, websites and sending fake e-mails to allure job seekers, he added.

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