3 held for posing as ATS officers to dupe couple of Rs 90 lakh

Lucknow: The Cyber Crime police station of Lucknow on Friday arrested three more members of a cyber fraud gang that allegedly duped a city resident of Rs 90 lakh by impersonating officers of the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad and threatening him with a fake "digital arrest". Police said the fraud began on Jan 26, when the victim's wife, Veena Bajpai, received a call from a man claiming to be inspector Ranjit Kumar posted at the ATS headquarters. The caller accused her of involvement in terrorism and money laundering.
Veena was asked to download the encrypted messaging platform Signal. Through the app, another person identifying himself as Ajay Pratap Srivastava, an ATS officer, contacted the family and conducted what he described as a "digital investigation". The accused allegedly showed fake Supreme Court orders and seizure documents, claiming the couple's bank accounts were under scrutiny. The victim and his wife were persuaded to transfer their savings for "verification". Between Jan 29 and Feb 9, they transferred around Rs 90 lakh through RTGS transactions to several bank accounts provided by the fraudsters. After receiving the money, the accused allegedly demanded an additional Rs 11 lakh. Police launched a detailed probe involving bank account tracking, digital forensics, and surveillance. Police earlier arrested five members of the gang in two phases—three on Feb 17 and two on March 2—and sent them to jail. On Friday, the cyber crime team arrested three additional accused, Dheeraj, Sparsh Kapoor and Ashish Chandra. Dheeraj told police that he helped open a bank account in the name of Rahul Pal at a Kotak Mahindra Bank branch in Rajajipuram on the instructions of Sparsh Kapoor, for which he received Rs 8,000. Police said Sparsh Kapoor later withdrew money from the same account through cheques and handed it over to Ashish Chandra, receiving Rs 10,000 as commission. Investigators found that Ashish Chandra played a key role in the money trail. He allegedly instructed Kapoor to withdraw Rs 2.45 lakh from the account and hand over the cash to him. Police said Chandra was responsible for converting fraud proceeds into cryptocurrency.