New Delhi: The Delhi Police Friday busted a gang that allegedly duped people by creating a fake helicopter ticket booking website for places such as Vaishno Devi, Kedarnath and Badrinath shrines.
The IFSO ( Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Operations) unit of Delhi Police said the gang was operating from different parts of India, including West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. So far, four people – Deepak Thakur from UP’s Firozabad, Jeki Prasad Kahar and Pappu Singh from West Bengal’s Bhatpara, and Vikash Kumar Bhagat from West Bengal’s Mominpada – have been arrested.
According to sources in the Delhi Police, the gang has been active for over six months and has cheated over 100 people of nearly Rs 50 lakh.
DCP KPS Malhotra, IFSO, Delhi Police, said, “A complaint was received regarding some unknown persons who cheated the complainant on the pretext of booking helicopter tickets for visiting Vaishno Devi temple shrine in Jammu. During the probe, the NCRP (National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal) was analysed and about 112 such complaints were found linked to the same syndicate. On technical analysis, the locations of suspected persons were found to be in Bihar, West Bengal and UP.”
“The gang was headed by accused Thakur who developed the website to cheat devotees,” the DCP said, adding that Thakur is a B.Tech student.
A team under ACP Raman Lamba was constituted and simultaneous raids were conducted in UP’s Firozabad, Bihar and West Bengal. The police have recovered a total of 15 hard disks, two laptops, five mobile phones, cheque books and ATM cards.
The website made by the accused looked similar to government-authorised sites. The money was siphoned off to bank accounts and immediately withdrawn via cheque books and ATM cards by the accused.
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