The incident came to light when the Borivali GRP officer reached Odisha for investigating an online fraud case that was registered in January
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The Borivali GRP has arrested 39-year-old franchise staff of nationalized bank from Odisha who allegedly opened bank accounts of poor villagers under the “Jan Dhan Account Yojna” scheme pretending Rs 15,000 would be credited to their account and used those accounts to deposit the money received from online fraud.
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The incident came to light when the Borivali GRP officer reached Odisha for investigating an online fraud case that was registered in January.
A 25-year-old Malad woman became a victim of online fraud when she filled out a form online seeking for job and lost Rs 70,000 from her bank account.
Speaking with the Mid-Day, an officer said the victim boarded a local train for Churchgate and she received a message on her mobile phone for a job.
She opened the link and was filling in the details during which she received a call from an unknown lady caller who informed her that she had to pay Rs 10 as a donation for Covid-19 without doing the same her form would not be accepted.
As the victim was in need of a job she transferred Rs 10 online from her debit card and a couple of moments later she started receiving messages of transactions of a total of Rs 70,000 from her bank account.
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She reached Churchgate station and reported the incident to the GRP. A case under the section of cheating and online fraud was registered and the case was transferred to GRP Borivali for further investigation, said an officer.
Taking information from the victim's bank we come to know that the entire amount was transferred to an SBI bank account in Odisha.
When we checked the account details, it was revealed that more than five lakh transaction was happening in that account every month. Under the supervision of senior inspector Anil Kadam, API Darshan Patil reached Odisha along with his team and met the account holder, the officer added.
"We met the account holder she was a woman whose financial condition was very poor she was living in a small hut and she used to earn her living by making beedis. When we inquired about her bank account she was not aware of the transaction and told us that her account was opened by the accused. Not only her, the accused opened many such accounts, but he had given villagers a bank passbook and had kept the other documents including a debit card with him. He told them that government would transfer Rs 15,000 to every people under Jandhan Yojana Scheme,” the officer said.
She disclosed the name and place of the accused and we caught the accused. During the inquiry it has been revealed the accused was running franchises of SBI Bank in the village he has all legal permission and documents in this regard, the officer added.
The accused is linked with a gang member of online fraud, who used to cheat on the pretext of a job, KYC, and other modus like hiking the bank account of people across the country. And the amount cheated he used to transfer into the account of poor and innocent people, the officer said.
During the inquiry, it has been revealed in the above crime many more accused were involved we caught the mastermind rest are still at large we would also be caught them but because we could not get support from the local police.
We waited three to four days for police help and when he got help the other accused managed to escape said another officer, we are searching for others accused he added.