One more Hyderabad resident was arrested and remanded on Thursday in an online fraud case where Rs. 11.14 lakh was stolen from two bank accounts of a city-based doctor.
Four persons had been earlier arrested in the case. The gang managed to get a duplicate SIM for the Vodafone connection used by Dr. Shabir Khan R. Rawther, consultant at Lakeshore Hospital, and using that withdrew the money from his two Axis Bank accounts at the Rajaji Road branch here. The investigation done by the City Police showed that the stolen money was transferred to 22 bank accounts in nine States and the money was withdrawn using 90 ATMs in different parts of the country.
Two persons from Hyderabad and two from Mumbai had been arrested earlier. Out of the 22 bank accounts, one account was tracked to Kotak Mahindra Bank in Secunderabad. On interrogating Shoaib Mohammed Khan, who opened that account, the police learnt that it was his salary account while he was employed at a private firm.
However, he left the job, complaining that he was not paid on time. His team leader Atta-ur Rahman, 32, of House Number 9-4-77-A, Plot Number 21, Al Sahanath Colony, Hyderabad, secured the ATM card and the secret number sent to the company address and used it to divert the stolen money. Investigations showed that Rs. 2 lakh out of the money siphoned off from the doctor's account was diverted to this account.
Atta-ur Rahman's colleague and friend Hameed was arrested earlier. Following this, the investigation team sent notice to the accused, asking him to come over. Atta-ur Rahman reached the city on Wednesday and surrendered before the investigation team on Thursday.
He was interrogated by Sunil Jacob, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Ernakulam and D.S. Suneesh Babu, Circle Inspector, Town Central, who is also the investigating officer. Later in the day, he was produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate and remanded.
The City Police had sent nine special teams to different cities to probe the case. One team is expected to leave soon for West Bengal to get Felix Ivdubuisi Egedigave, also known as David of Nigeria, believed to be kingpin of the racket and presently serving a sentence in Alipore Prison.
