By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 8 Apr: The Uttarakhand STF has busted a gang of cyber thugs who were committing fraud in the name of Prime Minister Mudra Loan Scheme in different states across the country. STF has also succeeded in arresting two members of the gang. The STF recovered Rs 1,31,100 from both the accused in addition to 14 SIM cards, 11 ATM cards, 10 mobiles, two passbooks and cheque books of 7 different banks from their possession.
The online fraud was being committed on the false promise of loans to the victims under the Prime Minister Mudra Loan scheme on various 14C portals of the Home Ministry. When Uttarakhand STF inspected all the portals, some suspected mobile numbers of online fraud were traced, which were from Dehradun. The Police Station in in Prem Nagar pursued the case for a long time and, through these numbers, incidents of cyber fraud were detected to have been carried out with many people in different states of the country.
After investigation into the fraud, the STF finally arrested two suspected accused, Rahul Chaudhary and Siddhant Chauhan, from Prem Nagar, Dehradun. During interrogation, both the accused said that the leader of this network is Deepak Raj Sharma, who taught them this fraud.
STF SSP Ayush Aggarwal shared that many people associated with this gang used to cheat people in Telangana, Andhra, Karnataka and Maharashtra in the name of the scheme, to the extent of around Rs 5 to 6 lakhs every week. Aggarwal added that the mastermind of this gang, Deepak Raj Sharma, is building a hostel on land in Suddhowala, Dehradun, with the money earned through cheating. He also owns a garments shop in Thakurpur. At present, STF has a list of 35 people who were victims of fraud. A complaint has been received on the basis of which the gang leader and other people are being tracked down.
