The police in Powai recently busted a gang which swindled people to the tune of crores of rupees by using forged cheques. Raiding its den in Kurla, the cops recovered more than 150 credit and debit cards, blank ration cards bearing the government stamp on them, blank driving licences stamped by RTOs, fake pan cards, fake voter I-cards, a computer containing addresses, phone numbers and bank account numbers of various people.
Original cheque books of various banks were also found among other original and fake documents. Last week, the police arrested five people from different parts of the city in connection with the case. One of the key accused, identified as Mohammad Kasim Shaikh alias Azim Patel, 27, was held in Bandra later.
Interrogating him, the cops came to know that he was not the kingpin. He acted on the orders of the kingpin, who was at large. Patel said that his “boss” was a small-time actor, who has featured in movies and music videos, and had been running the racket for the past few months.
Police said the kingpin operated in various cities across India, having employed a large number of people to do the job for him. For every transaction, his hired hands got a 10% commission, said a cop.
Investigations have revealed that the gang operating in Mumbai was also involved in online lottery fraud. A senior police official said on condition of anonymity, “Other than forging cheques, the gang was also involved in online lottery frauds, in which foreign nationals too could be involved. It perhaps was involved in phishing too as the computer seized from the gang’s den had bank account numbers and credit card details of several people.”
The case first came to light when a saree manufacturer from Powai registered a complaint with the police after an amount of Rs25 lakh was transferred from his account to another one by using a forged cheque.
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