New Delhi, Jan 2 (IANS): Five men, who used to impersonate as DSIIDC officers to dupe factory owners in the national capital, were arrested after a massive hunt, a Delhi Police official said on Tuesday.

The accused identified as Vikram Saxena (38), Ved Prakash Tomar (48), Mohammad Saqlain Nakvi a.k.a Asraf (59) Ravi Chaudhary (37) and Shah Hasan Nakvi (32) had three FIRs and 10 NCRP complaints against them in which they had duped factory owners to the tune of Rs 25 lakh.

The arrests came after a complaint was received recently at the Cyber Crime reporting portal from Gurbinder Kumar Tandon, a resident of Bawana.

“The complainant was defrauded of Rs 1,75,000 on the pretext of depositing ground rent without interest. The alleged person impersonated Naveen Gupta, an official of Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC),” said the Deputy Commissioner of Police (outernorth) Ravi Kumar Singh

This type of fraudulent activity appears to be widespread, with numerous factory owners in Bawana falling prey to similar schemes.

Prior to this complaint, two comparable cases had already been registered, each following a similar modus operandi. In each instance, the perpetrators utilised deceptive tactics, masquerading as officials to lure unsuspecting individuals into financial traps.

“Further, more than ten complaints of a similar nature, defrauding in the name of DSIIDC Officials from factory owners, were also received,” said the DCP.

During the probe, details of calling numbers, bank accounts were obtained, and a money trail was conducted.

“As per trail, a raid was conducted on December 27 in Ghaziabad area and Nakvi was apprehended,” said the DCP.

On interrogation, Nakvi stated contrary facts and didn't cooperate in the investigation.

“Thereafter, he was arrested in the present case.From the custodial interrogation of the accused, it was ascertained that the accused persons were running a syndicate in active connivance with other co-accused under a criminal conspiracy,” said the DCP.

The police team, to nab remaining accused, minutely scrutinised the modus operandi of the alleged cheaters, and it was learned that the alleged persons were using WhatsApp numbers to be in touch.

“Through electronic surveillance and local intelligence, the team obtained the details of the IP address of apparent WhatsApp numbers, intercepted the location of all the accused persons, and arrested the remaining four accused in the present case,” said the DCP.

The DCP further said that Saxena is the mastermind of this scam and was earlier arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police in 2020.

“He is well familiar with the workings of DSIIDC and information available online to dupe people. They used to call factory owners, impersonating DSIDC officials and induce factory owners to deposit pending ground rent bills without interest or taxes. The defrauded factory owners paid in fraudulent accounts using online payment methods,” said the DCP.

Saxena hatched the whole scam, and Ravi is fluent in English and used to call factory owners. “Shah Hasaan arranged accounts to get defrauded money in those accounts. Nakvi and Ved Prakash also used to contact factory owners and have 20 per cent shares each. They used to provide receipts against the payments received,” the DCP added.