Bid to dupe SP lands 3 behind bars

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 6

A call made to UT SP (City) Parvinder Singh by three con men asking him to renew his health policy landed them behind bars today. The UT police unearthed a major racket in which the three fraudsters used to dupe people by asking them to invest in fake policies. The three, unaware that they had actually called a senior police officer, were arrested after a trap was laid by the officer.

The accused had called up the SP (City) and asked him for Rs 20,000 for renewing the policy. The police then trapped the accused, two of whom are residents of Delhi and one of Uttar Pradesh.

The SP (City) received a call from one of the accused on May 1 asking him to pay Rs 20,000 for getting a health policy renewed.

The call surprised the police officer as he did not have any such health policy. What was more surprising for him was that the accused had his personal details.

The SP decided to lay a trap and deposited Rs 10,000 in the account number provided by the accused. “I didn’t deposit the rest of the amount. When the accused again called up in connection with the remaining amount, they were told that due to some reasons, the amount could not be deposited and it would be better if they came to Chandigarh and took the money,” the SP said.

The police officer said the three accused, Amit Haldar, a resident of Ashok Nagar, Delhi, Pankaj Kumar, a resident of Meet Nagar, Delhi, and Kapil Kumar, a resident of Gautam Budh Nagar, UP, were arrested when they reached the city to take the money.

Haldar used to gather information about people, Kapil used to call them up and Pankaj used to assist both of them.

The police said it is was an organsied racket and more people could be involved in the case. “We suspect that employees of some genuine companies, that have mass data of people, may have illegally provided information about people to the accused,” said the police.

A case under Sections 66-D (punishment for cheating by impersonation using a computer source) of the IT Act, 420 (cheating) and 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable by imprisonment for life or other imprisonment) of the IPC has been registered against the accused at the Sector 3 police station on a complaint of head constable Satish Kumar.

The police are also investigating whether or not any city resident was duped by the accused.

Renewal of health policy that never existed

The SP (City) received a call from one of the accused on May 1 asking him to pay Rs 20,000 for getting a health policy renewed. The call surprised the police officer as he did not have any such health policy. What was more surprising for him was that the accused had his personal details.