Gang of extortionists busted, 5 held

New Delhi, April 15 (IANS) The Delhi Police has caught a syndicate of international fraudsters and extortionists and arrested five people for abusing and extorting innocent people, an official said on Friday.

The accused were identified as Sonu Singh, Vikash Kumar, Harpreet Singh, Pankaj Kumar and Jitender Kumar.

Giving details, DCP (Crime branch) Rohit Meena said a complaint was lodged by a man alleging that he and his family, friends and relatives were being abused and threatened by some unknown persons through some international and national WhatsApp mobile numbers, since the last few days to repay the loan taken from "Cash Advance Ha", an unauthorized Chinese micro finance company. Based on the complaint, the police registered a case under sections 419, 420 and 385 of the IPC & 66 C, 66 D of the IT Act.

During investigation of the Call Detail Records of the mobile phones used in the crime, it was revealed that the accused persons were making calls to the victims through fraudulently obtained WhatsApp numbers, of which most were from Assam and West Bengal.

On scrutiny of the Call Detail Records of the mobile numbers, one of the accused was located in the Delhi-Gurugram border area after which raids were conducted at SalaPur Khera, Bijwashan, Delhi, where the accused Sonu Singh, who used to make the calls to the victims through a fraudulently obtained WhatsApp number was arrested and the mobile numbers used in the crime were also recovered from him. At the instance of Sonu Singh, another accused Vikash Kumar was arrested from Farukhabad in Uttar Pradesh.

During technical analysis, it was found that Vikash Kumar was running a team of callers, who used to make calls to the persons who had taken a loan from their App. It was also found that if a person needed to take a loan through the Apps available online, he had to download the application first. At the time of downloading the application, the app asks permission to capture the contact list, photo gallery and other personal data of the phone of the loan seeker. It was assured by the loan application that the loan amount will be interest free for the next 60 days. As soon as the permission was granted by the loan seeker, all their data automatically got transferred to Chinese servers.

Two more persons Harpreet Singh and Pankaj Kumar, who are working as managers in the company have also been arrested and one more accused Jitender Kumar, who used to provide WhatsApp mobile numbers for calling purposes has also been arrested in the case.