UP doctor among 2 arrested for Bima Lokpal fraud

Nagpur: An interstate gang of fraudsters, which had duped hundreds of citizens across the country in the name of Bima Lokpal-Reliance Insurance and Ojaswini Group (a fictitious government organization offering huge sum of money as bonus on insurance policies), was busted by the sleuths of Cyber Complaint Cell (C3 unit) and Bajaj Nagar police.

The police have nabbed Sarfaraz Ahmed (43), a doctor, and Abhishek Tyagi (27), both from Chandpur tehsil in Bijnor district of Uttar Pradesh. The accused were brought to the city on Saturday last week and were produced before court on Sunday which remanded them in police custody till Thursday.

The scam mastermind Rohit Sharma, who owns a real estate company in Noida, is yet to be arrested.

The investigation started when Sudhir Gawande, 79, a retired chief conservator of forest, lodged a complaint with Bajaj Nagar police on February 21 about having been duped to the tune of Rs39.04 lakh by a Delhi-based gang.

Lured by first Rs25 lakh and then Rs50 lakh ‘bonus’ being offered by Bima Lokpal, Gawande had deposited the money in 25 bank accounts on the instructions of the tricksters between December 2015 and February this year. He had also received cheques from the fraudsters, which bounced. When he tried to call on the numbers from which the fraudsters used to contact him, he found that the numbers had been switched off. After realizing that he had been duped, Gawande had lodged the complaint.

Bajaj Nagar police roped in Cyber Cell sleuths in the case. The sleuths traced the bank account numbers and found that the account-holders belonged to a single family from Bijnor.

“When our team reached Bijnor, we laid a trap to nab the family members with the help of local police. As we tried to enter the house, women from the family blocked our entry. When we interrogated the family members with the help of local cops, they informed that they had allowed some people to use their bank accounts in lieu of commission. Cops then zeroed in on Abhishek Tyagi, who was instrumental in convincing the family for ‘renting out’ the bank accounts. Tyagi was arrested,” said constable Amit Bhune.

High drama ensued when the Cyber Cell sleuths tried to take Tyagi with them. All the women from the family, supported by many others from the area, blocked the road and prevented sleuths from leaving the place. Local police had to intervene in clearing the road for the visiting police party. Later, Sarfaraz Ahmed too was arrested from a nearby area. The sleuths also detected a balance of Rs1.5 lakh in Ahmed’s account and Rs5lakh in the account of Tyagi’s sister and father.

During questioning, the duo revealed the name of mastermind Rohit Sharma, who operates from Noida where he has a very hi-tech office. “Nobody can enter his office without biometric verification. Every visitor has to deposit cell phone with the security before entering the office,” the accused informed the cops. The accused also revealed the modus operandi stating that they used to change ‘call centre’ location every three months. It was also learnt that the tricksters had duped several persons in almost all the states.


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