The accused have been identified as residents of Kolkata, named Sagar Das (34) and Chunchun Pathak (49).
The Cyber Crime Police on Monday arrested two people, including a priest, for allegedly siphoning off Rs 1.86 crore belonging to a businessman, through the SIM swap fraud.
The accused have been identified as residents of Kolkata, named Sagar Das (34) and Chunchun Pathak (49).
According to the police, the complainant Vimal Shah (57), a resident of Matunga, runs a textile business. In 2014, Shah along with his sons, had built Primex Enterprises Company in Mahim. The exports and sells bedsheets.
The company has a current account in a Mahim-based cooperative bank. Shah was also using the bank's net banking facility.
On December 27, last year, when Shah returned home at around 11.44 pm, he received a missed call on his mobile from an unknown number. He had received over six missed calls from different mobile numbers till 2 am.
"Next morning Shah realised that his mobile number was inactive. At around 10 am, he visited the mobile phone gallery where he was told that at around 11.15 pm on December 27, a request was made to deactivate his number. Shah then bought a new SIM card," a police officer said.
Upon checking, Shah, the police said, later realised that there was no balance left in his company's bank account. He was informed by the bank that Rs 1.86 crore was transferred to various other bank accounts in 28 transactions, of which three transactions worth Rs 20 lakh had failed. And the money was credited back into his company account. The total transferred amount was Rs 1.66 crore.
"Three special teams were formed for investigation. The teams visited West Bengal, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh for the same. Our probe then led us to Pathak, who had received Rs 14 lakh in his bank account through the fraud. His interrogation then led us to Das. We have seized a mobile phone and nine SIM cards. We suspect many more persons to be involved. Though we suspect this to be a SIM swap fraud, the modus operandi is yet to be ascertained," a police officer said.
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