Gujarat police and their counterparts in West Bengal are hunting for an inter-state gang with their eyes on an illicit supply chain that recognises no border or has one that blurs between the black and legal marketplace in India. Officers joined the dots when a prominent lawyer in Kolkata purchased a mobile phone for his wife in June-end this year. Hardly did he know that days later, the phone, a Samsung model, would be seized by a Gujarat police team, which reached his residence by tracking the IMEI number of the device.
The lawyer was told that while the phone had not been used for the commission of any crime, the device had been purchased through proceeds of crime. It had been allegedly purchased from an online marketplace by cybercriminals from the notorious Jamtara in Jharkhand who had conned a Rajkot man around 2,000 km, after convincing him into giving them OTPs in the guise of a KYC update procedure.
The phone was promptly marked as ‘evidence’ and another case was filed, this time in West Bengal.
These cases now have two victims in different corners of the country.
The investigation into the matter actually began on April 7 this year when the Cybercrime Police in Rajkot city received a complaint from a person engaged in construction business. The complaint stated that unknown persons, impersonating bank officials, allegedly asked him to complete a KYC procedure for his credit card. He alleged that impersonators asked him to give them OTPs multiple times, claiming that there was some issue with the completion of the process.
“The cyber criminals, meanwhile, were actually ordering mobile phones from e-commerce website Flipkart using the victim’s card details and coaxing him to give them the OTPs for the purchases. They purchased a total of three mobile phones — two iPhones and one Samsung model — worth a total of Rs 5,62,874,” said PI Savraj D Gilva of Rajkot Cyber Crime Police station.
After obtaining details of these alleged illicit purchases from Flipkart, the police put the 15-digit IMEI numbers of all the three devices on surveillance, hoping to physically locate those once they were turned on for use.
Story continues below this ad
In June-end, the police finally got a lead when the Samsung model was switched on and a SIM card activated in the device. The phone was traced to Kolkata. A team comprising a sub-inspector and two constables were dispatched to West Bengal and the police zeroed in on the lawyer’s residence. “It was the residence of a very prominent lawyer in Kolkata who practices in the Calcutta High Court. The team found his wife using the phone,” said the PI Gilva.
When asked for the proof of purchase, the lawyer produced not just the box of the mobile phone, but also a GST bill and details of the online transaction, showing he had made a payment of Rs 49,000 for it.
“The advocate told us that he had physically purchased the phone from a very big store in Kolkata and he had no reason to believe that this was not a legitimate purchase. He thus became the second victim of this criminal enterprise,” said Gilva
The police team reached the shop located in North Kolkata’s Bowbazar. Rajkot Cyber Crime police tried to find out from where the store had purchased the phone, but the shop owner could not be found and attempts to locate him did not yield results.
Story continues below this ad
Meanwhile, the lawyer then filed a complaint of cheating and fraud against the shop owner at Hare Street police station. The FIR was transferred to Bowbazar police station as the mobile store fell under their jurisdiction. When Bowbazar police spoke to the store owner, he too produced a bill, showing he had purchased the phone from his distributor.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Inspector Arupkumar Banerjee of Bowbazar police station said, “The complainant, who purchased the phone, was unaware that it was bought through proceeds of crime. Once he inserted the SIM, he was informed of the same by the Gujarat police. So he filed the complaint. We are now investigating the matter.”
Asked about the FIR, Inspector Banerjee said, “The FIR was initially filed against the store owner but he had purchased the phone against a bill and he also did not know (the provenance). He purchased it on GST from his distributor and further sold it with a bill, so it is a chain and it will take some time to reach the source.”
Speaking on the cyber fraud that the Rajkot man fell prey to, PI Gilva said, “During the probe, we came to know that the fraudsters who impersonated bank officials, were based out of Jamtara in Jharkhand. While making the illegal purchase, they set the delivery location of the phones as Kolkata. Using WhatsApp IP addresses, we attempted to investigate the source by sending a team to Jamtara as well, but they could not be found as the phones used for the cybercrime might have been discarded.”
Story continues below this ad
With investigations still underway, the police are now hoping to trace the phone back to the gang and trace the two iPhones.
