The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch CID (Kollam) on Wednesday arrested a native of Saravanapetti in Coimbatore for his alleged involvement in a Pakistan-based racket that cheated people of huge sums of money by sending SMSs that they had won lotteries.
Crime Branch Dy.SP Sarju Prasad arrested Karthik Dhanapal, 31, on a complaint from Rajeev Kumar, a jawan attached to the Pangode military camp in Thiruvananthapuram.
MI probe
The Military Intelligence (MI) had initially investigated the case and detected the Pakistan link to the racket.
The MI submitted details of the probe to ADGP (South Zone) K. Padmakumar, who submitted a report to State Police Chief K.S. Balasubramanian suggesting investigation by a special agency. The probe was then handed over to the EOW.
Mr. Prasad, in charge of the probe, said fraudsters directed those responding to the message to deposit processing charge in bank accounts based in India.
Mr. Rajeev received a message that his mobile phone had won Rs.25 lakh in a draw and, as directed, deposited Rs.7.5 lakh towards processing charge. Of this, Rs.2 lakh was deposited in an account in the name of Dhanapal in a Coimbatore branch of a private sector bank.
Mr. Rajeev had deposited the balance amount in branches of two banks in Maharashtra, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh opened under different names.
All instructions Mr. Rajeev received on his phone were from phone numbers based in Pakistan.
Dhanapal allegedly confessed to receiving a hefty commission for being part of the link. Mr. Prasad said the racket had links to Bangladesh, as revealed by Dhanapal. His bank accounts showed transactions of crores in the past one year.
The accused was produced before a court on Thursday evening and remanded in the district jail. Mr. Prasad said the Crime Branch would move the court for the police custody of the accused.
One arrested from Coimbatore
Jawan cheated of Rs.7.5 lakh
One held from Coimbatore for cheating jawan of Rs.7.5 lakh.
