Summary:
Surat police arrested a gang of six people involved in cheating credit card holders, identified as Veer Bhadrasinh Zhala (26), a resident of Bhavnagar, Mehul Kukadia (28), a resident of Katargam, Yash Bhuptani (24), a resident of Amroli, Manish Bhuva (34), a resident of Kagtargam (bill collection agent), Milan Chovatiya (22), a resident of Katargam, and Jitendra Mandal, a resident of Jamtara in Jharkhand.
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Surat police arrested a gang of six people involved in cheating credit card holders to pay power bills amounting to Rs 3.67 crore of various companies in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh by taking OTP from them.
Police also froze 115 bank accounts with a balance of Rs 59.
93 lakh used by the accused.
According to police, a woman from Katargam area in Surat city, approached police with a complaint of cheating by unidentified persons who defrauded her of Rs 21,873 from her bank account.
Following her complaint, on May 22, police registered an offence of cheating under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 406, 420 and IT Act sections 66 (D) and started a probe.
The woman had in her complaint alleged that on May 16, she received a call from the RBL (Ratnakar Bank) credit card company.
Sharing her credit card number and date of birth, the caller told her that she was eligible for three shopping vouchers from the bank, for which she had to share a One Time Password (OTP).
The complainant shared the OTP that she received with the caller.
After sometime, she found that Rs 21,873 was deducted from her credit card to pay the power bills of a consumer of Torrent power company in Surat city and another bill of DGVCL consumer in Surat city.
She contacted the bank and realised the fraud.
The Katargam police and Surat cyber crime started probe and contacted both the consumers whose bill were paid using the woman’s credit card using their consumer number.