Cyber frauds run ‘firm’, employ over 300 on high salaries: Police

PATNA: Cyber fraudsters operating in state have set up a private company and hired over 300 educated youths to commit crime. Surprisingly, the gang led by two brothers have spread its tentacles in more than 10 districts in north Bihar and is carrying out operations for the last eight years.
The Muzaffarfpur police came across a gang of cyber fraudsters that was operating on the pattern of a corporate firm in north Bihar region.The firm, nicknamed ‘PMC’ (Pankaj Management Company), had hired more than 300 educated youths from across the state on high salaries.
Preliminary police investigations revealed that some gang members were getting Rs 60,000 as monthly salary from ‘PMC’, which had set up its offices in Muzaffarpur and its adjoining districts. In Muzaffarpur, the company was operating from its offices located at Laxmi Chowk, Kalambagh Chowk and Kachi Pakki Chowk.
Surprisingly, the recruitment process was completed with such a precision that initially nobody could suspect any foul play. Once the recruitment process was complete, the recruits were dispatched to Jamtara in Jharkhand for training. Having finished their training, the recruits were assigned work.
The recruits even got promotions. Those familiar with technical know-how were given preferences in the recruitment, police sources said.
Muzaffarpur SSP Jayant Kant said the police arrested six members of the inter-district gang, including its kingpin, Pappu Sahni, for their involvement in ATM fraud cases and other cybercrimes. Luxury cars, semi-automatic weapons and machines used for cloning ATM cards were seized.
The 48-hour-long police operation led by city SP Niraj Kumar Singh yielded recovery of Rs 33.56 lakh in cash, jewellery worth over Rs 2 lakh and documents of property purchased by the two brothers — Pankaj Sahni and Pappu Sahni, residents of Madhuban Kanti under the Minapur police station area in Muzaffarpur district.
While Pankaj is on the run, his father Umashankar Sahni, stated to be block level functionary of a political party, was released on personal bond. “Initially, the members of the gang were given 10% of the money transferred into the account of the ‘company’ from the gullible customers,” the SSP said.
He added the gang members were involved in at least nine major incidents of ATM fraud in Muzaffarpur district in the last one year. “They all are graduates and tech-savvy. The members of the gang used to target the ATM debit card and credit card holders mostly in the ATMs having no security guards on duty,” he added.
Elderly people or women from rural areas were the soft targets of the gang. Revealing the modus operandi of the gang, the SSP said, “In most cases, money was transferred fraudulently by cloning the ATM cards after ascertaining the secret PIN numbers of the card holders at ATM kiosks. At times, they used to install cameras in the ATM kiosks to record activities of the card holders.”
During interrogation, the arrested people revealed the names of 72 of their accomplices, who were involved in cyber fraud in Muzaffarpur, East Champaran, West Champaran, Gopalganj, Saran, Samastipur, Vaishali, Sitamarhi, Sheohar, Darbhanga and Siwan districts.
An investigating officer said the gang members were equipped with sophisticated weapons. A carbine, a 9mm pistol, two pistols of 7.62 bore, a country-made pistol, a gun and 13 live cartridges were seized from the possession of the arrested people.
The arrested people, including Pappu Sahni, Indrajeet Ojha, Brajesh Kumar, Rakesh Kumar and Aditya alias Golu, revealed that some members were also working as data entry operators in government-run organizations.
The kingpins of the racket — Pankaj and Pappu — owned a double-storey building at their native village and a house in Balughat locality of Muzaffarpur town. The police have stumbled upon their assets in Delhi, Noida, Bhopal and a few places in Jharkhand.
“We will send a proposal to the economic offences unit of the state police to investigate the ill-gotten property of the two brothers,” the SSP said.