Nalgonda: Cops arrest gang of four who loot people

Nalgonda: Nalgonda SP AV Ranganath stated that district police arrested a gang of four members for committing cyber crimes by sending friends requests for money through messengers from fake Facebook accounts of police officials.

In a press conference held at the district police office on Saturday, the SP revealed the details of the crimes committed by the gang through the fake Facebook accounts created so far.

He said that the district police arrested Mustaqeem Khan, Manish, Shahid and Saddam Khan from Ketwada mandal in Bharatpur district of Rajasthan. Off the arrested lot, Manish is said to be a minor boy.

They used to threaten people on the road and rob them along with committing cybercrimes such as getting money in their bank accounts, Google Pay and Phone Pe on the pretext of selling army vehicles and other goods at low prices by using the online platform such as OLX.

They started creating the fake Facebook accounts of police officers of the Southern states of the country via mobile phones and laptops with an intention of making easy money as an alternative due to the declining purchases from through OLX and no movement of vehicles on the road due to nation-wide lockdown.

As part of their cheating, they created fake accounts on the name of officers and sent requests to people and urged them to send money via Phone Pe by sending text messages in the name of an emergency. He said that the bank accounts and SIM cards used by them were being used only for committing these crimes and were purchased for Rs 3,000 from strangers who going through financial trouble.

He said that the created fake Facebook accounts of 350 police officers from Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh had been identified. Off the total fake accounts, 81 belonged to Telangana.

He said that although they had to work hard to catch the cyber criminals, police team moved to Rajasthan without any hesitation and acted effectively.

He said that for the first time in the country, a gang of Facebook cyber criminals were caught by the Nalgonda police team and added that Rs 5 lakh cash, 8 mobile phones, a laptop, 30 SIM cards, fake Aadhaar cards and various other documents were seized from the accused.

The Telangana police will conducting a more in-depth investigation in this case, SP added.

SP congratulated Nalgonda two Town CI SM Basha, Rural SI Amireddy Rajasekhar Reddy, Constables Shamshuddinand, Balakoti, who played key role in cracking the case and also technical team of IT wing.