Team from Mumbai police catches phisher in action from Bihar

Gunilal Bindeshwari Mandal, the accused who was caught

THE DB Marg police team, which was returning to Mumbai after nabbing an inter-state gang of cybercriminals in Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal, arrested a 30-year-old accused red-handed while he was making a phishing call in Bihar. This is the first cyber case that the Mumbai police have solved within 24 hours.

The accused Gunilal Bindeshwari Mandal was arrested after a dramatic chase in the forest area of Banka district of Bihar, while the complainant is a resident of Opera House in South Mumbai.

"On November 2, one Kaiwalya Modha, 30, approached DB Marg police station to register a complaint that cybercriminals had siphoned off Rs 64,000 from his account. The caller, as usual, pretending to be a banking official told Modha that his e-KYC of the bank needed to be updated and asked for the OTP sent to his mobile phone," said inspector Raja Bidkar from DB Marg police station.

After registering the case, the cops retrieved the Call Data Records of the accused. "We were returning to Mumbai after solving another cybercrime case. We were at Patna airport when I received a call from Mumbai. The location of the accused was barely 120-km away," said Bidkar, who cancelled his ticket along with two sub-inspectors Pradeep Patil and Rakesh Shinde and constable Suraj Dhaygude. The team reached Banka district and contacted Bouncy police station to seek local assistance.

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"It took us a few hours to zero-in on the exact location of the accused as the cops at Bouncy police station said the location did not fall under their jurisdiction and suggested that we approach the Barahat police station," said the officer.

The cops reached Barahat police station and were asked to change their get-up to look like locals. "We changed and reached the spot on two motorcycles," Bidkar said.

After reaching the spot deep inside the forest area, the cops saw two people making calls from their mobiles. They were seated under the trees. The team monitored them for a few minutes and then alerted the local cops, who entered the village area in a police van.

"Seconds after the police van entered the village, the callers were alerted by someone and they started running. Though one of the accused, Mandal, was arrested despite jumping over a 15-ft high wall, another managed to give police the slip," he said.

The cops said Std X pass Mandal, who had been cheating people across India for the last two years, has recently purchased the latest luxury items for his home. Cops have seized two motorcycles the accused would use to reach banks immediately after the phishing attack to withdraw the money. They have also seized a huge stack of SIM cards which the accused would procure from Kolkata, mobile phones and six bank account details.

During interrogation, the cops learnt that Mandal underwent phishing training for Rs 20,000 for three months. The cops are now searching for the trainer who would come from Kolkata to train Mandal and his associates.

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