Initial probe reveals that he used a bulk messaging service to cheat people during the lockdown
Accused Shubham Pitambar Sahu
A 28-year old struggling Bollywood scriptwriter has landed in police custody for cheating a number of people over the past couple of months using a bulk messaging service. The initial probe has revealed that the accused duped a number of jewellers and a travel company as well just to lead a lavish life and impress his girlfriend, a Youtuber. However, a complaint filed by the company led to his arrest on Monday.
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Initial investigation has revealed that Sahu cheated a number of people during the lockdown. Representation Pic/Istock
An officer from Oshiwara police station said that accused Shubham Pitambar Sahu, a Mulund resident, had opened an account on Digital India Technology (DIT) in April to cheat people. Sahu was arrested after a travel company filed a complaint against him and an FIR was registered on November 18. In her complaint the victim said, "A person (Sahu) called me up after finding my number on a search engine and requested for two air tickets to Jaipur. After checking for the availability of the tickets, I sent him a quotation of '20,000. He asked for my bank account details and soon after I received a message saying that my account has been credited with '20,000 through NEFT." "The same evening he called me again and requested to book a room at a five-star hotel in Jaipur for seven days. After the booking was done, I received another message saying that my account has been credited with '13,700," the victim added.
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However, when she contacted her bank, she got to know that no money had been credited to her account. She immediately called up the accused. An officer said, "In a bid to prove himself correct, the accused transferred '100 to her bank account, tampered with the message by changing the digits just to show that he had sent '33,700 to the victim’s account." The victim then filed a complaint and an FIR was registered under relevant sections of IPC and IT Act at Oshiwara police station.
"We arrested Sahu from Adarsh Nagar area of Andheri West. He is being interrogated," said another officer.Investigation has revealed that Sahu created an account on DIT with the name Dreams of Aryan. The cops have come across 50 pages of his DIT account logs, which they are currently studying to know how many people he cheated. "There are more than 2,000 entries of messages in the last three months," the officer said.
"To make his victims believe that money was being credited to their accounts, Sahu would manipulate the sender ID before sending the messages. The content of the message and the sender ID would look like an auto-generated message from the bank," said a police officer, adding, "We are probing how he managed to manipulate the sender ID of banks to cheat people." On being contacted, founder of DIT, Pramod Saggar said, "It is a bulk messaging application. If you have Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) registration number with the TRAI, then you can create a unique sender ID and send messages using our platform, where you first need to have an account. DLT is a new regulation from TRAI, which has been introduced to track down those who send offensive messages in bulk. Though the new rule was introduced in May, it was strictly executed from December 1."
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