4 held for cheating 58-year-old woman of more than Rs 4L in part-time job scam

The Mumbai police have arrested four persons from Rajasthan for allegedly duping a woman of more than Rs 432 lakh by promising her a parttime job and extra income an official said on FridayAccording to the police officials the mastermind of the job racket is a 17yearold boy who was operating it from RajasthanThe police held the accused from Rajasthan and froze Rs 97 lakh deposited in 24 bank accounts used by them to dupe several other peopleThe fraud came to light when a 58yearold Chembur resident approached the Chunabhatti police station claiming that she had lost more than Rs 4 lakh to cyber fraudsters he saidThe complainant had received a WhatsApp message last month from a company which was offering a parttime job and asked her to join the firms Telegram group if she was interested he said She was given a task to like a video On completion of the first task she received Rs 150 followed by Rs 1300 and Rs 7500 Later she was given a task and was asked to give Rs 87000 in three installments The accused then lured her to invest Rs 432 lakh However she realised she was duped when she did not receive any money in return the official saidAlso Read Mumbai Police conducts operation All Out in city several arrested in raidsThe woman rushed to Chunabhatti police station and registered an offence under IPC section 419 cheating by personation 420 cheating and relevant sections of IT Act DCP Zone 6 Hemraj Singh Rajput directed Senior Inspector Anil Desai to form a dedicated team to probe the matterThe cops found a bank account to which the money was deposited and found it was opened in the name of Shivshankad Paswan The money was transferred to many accounts opened in the name of companiesDuring the probe cops came across more than 70 mobile numbers Their analysis led to close friends of the suspect Finally cops received a tipoff from one of the friends that the mastermind is arriving at MiraBhaynderCops raided a house and apprehended the 17yearold suspect along with three of his associates The cops recovered 43 ATM cards 25 cheque books 32 loose sim cards and 22 mobile handsetsThe accused have been identified as Piyush Soni 35 Arjun Soni 29 Rajkumar Soni 32The accused were arrested and produced before the court They have been remanded in police custody till April 26 while the minor was sent to the Children Home Dongri by the Juvenile Justice Board till May 3The accused have done similar offences and were booked by Matunga Pant Nagar and Cybrr police station The 24 bank accounts used by them have been frozen Rs 97 lakh have been found in these accounts told DCP Zone 6 Hemraj Singh Rajput We suspect they have cheated many more persons with the same modus he addedThe investigation of the offence was done by inspector Raju Thubal API Sachin Sarde Pradeep Patil Bharat Jadhav Kishor Kumar Zoting PSI Hemant Mirje and constable Vijay Ghadge