STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: At a time when Guwahati is making news due to the proliferation of cybercrime, as evidenced in the recent fake call centre case, Guwahati police have succeeded in arresting 19 out-of-state fraudsters involved in a holiday package scam targeting doctors and rich businessmen.
Following a complaint at Basistha police station by Brajesh Kumar Rai, a team from the police station conducted an investigation, which led to the arrest of a gang of 19 fraudsters, including a young woman hailing from Delhi, U.P., Jharkhand, and Bihar, who had been active in the city for the past few days or so. The fraudsters had even opened an office in the Beltola area.
After the complaint was filed, a case (593/23) was registered against the frauds at Basistha police station under IPC Sections 120B/419/420/385/468/471 read with Sec. 66D of the IT Act.
According to the complaint, the fraudsters offered coupons for holiday packages in the name of different agencies, primarily to rich people in the city. The holiday packages, however, turned out to be fraudulent. Even the pickup car to the airport did not arrive in time, which led to suspicions being raised against them.
According to police sources, the fraudsters collected information regarding potential customers, including their addresses and phone numbers, from automobile outlets in the city.
Out of the 19 arrested frauds, seven were held at the Greenwood Hotel in the Beltola area of the city. The rest of them were picked up from a hotel in the Paltan Bazar area.
The 19 fraudsters arrested by the Basistha police are: 1. Chandan Singh (36) from Patna, Bihar; 2. Sajal Kumar (20) of Gandhi Nagar, Delhi; 3. Chandan Kumar (27) of Begusarai, Bihar; 4. Pradip Kumar (27) of Prahladpur, Delhi; 5. Shabaj Alam (34) of Daranda, Jharkhand; 6. Shabir Ali (30) of Gorakhpur, U.P.; 7. Sarthak (25) of Prahladpur, Delhi; 8. Nirmal Kumar Mishra (35) of Saraswati Vihar, Delhi; 9. Firoj Malik (27) of Gokulpuri, New Delhi; 10. Prahlad Kumar Singh of Saharsa, Bihar; 11. Pankaj Gandhi of Agra, U.P.; 12. Aniket Prasad of Darjeeling, West Bengal; 13. Sanjay Singha Roy of Sangam Vihar, South Delhi; 14. Ejaz Ali of Lal Kuian, Delhi; 15. Sahil Ahmed of Ghaziabad, U.P.; 16. Shivam of Gokulpuri, Delhi; 17. Neeraj of Bawana, Delhi; 18. Marvin Massey of Faridabad, Haryana; and 19. Aparna of Central Delhi.
During the operation, the police also seized items like a register with names and addresses, four swipe machines, 23 mobile phones, and identity cards in the names of different travel agencies, mostly fictitious, police sources said. The register is said to contain the names of doctors in the city.
The police are grilling fraudsters to find out about their accomplices and connections in other cities.
Speaking about their modus operandi, the police said the frauds went in teams to different people in the city and offered them luxurious holiday package coupons in lieu of money. The holiday packages turned out to be a hoax, and there are reports that they defrauded around 10 people in the city.
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