MUMBAI: The DB Marg police have arrested the alleged mastermind of a cyber fraud syndicate who was involved in at least 2,993 instances of cyber fraud across the country, including 512 in Mumbai, the total defrauded amount exceeding ₹63 crore. The accused, SK Mandal, a graduate from Jharkhand, was arrested from a hotel in West Bengal on Sunday after managing to evade the police for days by constantly changing his location, police officers familiar with the case told Hindustan Times.
According to the police, Mandal had undertaken various computer courses and even learnt a programming language, Java. He used this knowledge to create APK (Android Package Kit) files purportedly for payment of pending traffic e-challans, domestic gas bills and other utilities. Once installed, the APK files gave operators discreet access to the victim’s handset and enabled them to operate bank accounts linked with the phone.
“During investigation, we found that Mandal had sold at least 91 APK files to various cyber fraud gangs which used the files to con people. The files were sold for ₹15,000-25,000 each, he claimed,” a police officer told HT, requesting anonymity.
The officer said Mandal was the mastermind behind the syndicate that defrauded Mahanagar Gas customers during the initial weeks of the war in West Asia, when LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) was in short supply. In fact, his name appeared on the police radar only after a city-based victim complained on July 3 of being duped of ₹70,500 over the preceding week, in the process of trying to clear pending dues with Mahanagar Gas Ltd, which supplies piped gas across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).
“During the height of the LPG crisis, the complainant received a message, purportedly from Mahanagar Gas, saying his gas connection would be disconnected if dues were not cleared within a few hours. Assuming the message was actually from Mahanagar Gas, and apprehending inconvenience in the event of disconnection, the complainant clicked on a link in the message for making payments, which resulted in an APK file being installed on his handset,” said R Ragasudha, Deputy Commissioner of Police (zone 2).
Once the APK file was installed, the frauds secured access to the complainant’s handset, used his banking credentials and siphoned off ₹70,500 from his bank account, Ragasudha said.
“When we started probing the case, we found the involvement of a certain SK Mandal, 26, from Jharkhand. We began tracking him, but he kept changing his location constantly. Finally, a team headed by sub-inspector Dhanvesh Patil and Kiran Devare zeroed in on him and picked him up from a hotel in West Bengal on Sunday,” said Nitin Dalvi, senior police inspector, DB Marg police station.
Dalvi said the police seized 10 mobile phones, a laptop, seven SIM cards, four debit/credit cards, 967 APK files, and banking details of around 37,000 people from Mandal. The accused was produced in a court in West Bengal on Sunday and remanded in police custody for five days. He was brought to Mumbai on transit remand and is currently in custody of the DB Marg police.
“We are now searching for the cyber fraud gangs which worked in close coordination with him and defrauded people,” said the officer quoted earlier.
