‘RBI man’ cons retd engr of Rs95 lakh in insurance scam

Kanpur: Nazirabad police arrested a husband-wife duo for allegedly swindling Rs 95 lakh from a retired junior engineer of the Police Housing Construction Corporation (PHCC) over nine years by posing as a Reserve Bank of India officer and promising refunds on 22 lapsed insurance policies.DCP central Atul Kumar Shrivastava said the victim, Jitendra Kumar Shrivastava, a resident of Shardanagar, served as a JE in the PHCC and retired in 2022. He had about 28 insurance policies, of which 22 lapsed due to non-payment of instalments.In 2017, while searching on Google to get refunds on the lapsed policies, he came across a website resembling RBI and a mobile number. On calling the number, a man introduced himself as the general manager of RBI and provided him with a fake RBI notice. Police said the accused later gave the retired JE a fake RBI letter to deceive him.Police said that for reactivating the lapsed policies, the accused got the retired JE to transfer Rs 95 lakh over nine years into his own and his wife’s bank accounts. Police investigation revealed that Rs 15 lakh of the swindled money was transferred to the wife’s account, while the remaining amount was transferred to the account of the accused. The accused allegedly used the money to buy an XUV car and an iPhone-15.When the policy premium refund was not received even after paying the money, the JE filed a complaint with the cybercell on May 10. Following this, a team comprising cybercell in-charge sub-inspector Tanuj Sirohi and SWAT in-charge Shivkumar Sharma began the investigation.Shrivastava said the victim called the accused and summoned him near JK mandir nahariya on the evening of May 25 for the money, where Nazirabad police arrested the man and his wife. During interrogation, they identified themselves as Deepak Singh, resident of Alimuddinpur Gidhona in Sultanpur, and Aanchal, resident of Shahganj in Jaunpur.Police said the investigation revealed that Deepak created a phishing website of RBI in 2017 and, after deceiving the retired JE, shut down the phishing site and remained in contact with him by phone. An XUV 3XO car, iPhone-15, VIVO mobile, laptop, cheque book and other electronic devices were seized from the accused.During a press conference, Deepak said that he had spoken to the retired JE over the phone in 2022-23, and that he had not created any website. He claimed the retired JE had called him. He said that the retired JE wanted a refund of his policy premium, for which he had introduced himself as a manager of the Reserve Bank of India.Deepak also said that he had transferred money from his account to his wife’s account. When his wife would ask where the money came from, he would tell her that his friends were transferring money to him for his medical treatment.