Gang of four including woman held for cheating

Hyderabad: The Cyberabad police arrested a four-member gang including a woman that has been cheating gullible people in the garb of setting up cell phone towers and warehouses on lease basis.

Mohammed Junaid Alam of Uttar Pradesh is the kingpin of the gang, while his relative Mohammed Mushir of Moradabad in UP, one Anupreet Kaur and her husband Prem Kishore of New Delhi are other members of the gang. The gang operated from its office in New Delhi.

Explaining the modus operandi of the gang, Cyberabad Police Commissioner Sandeep Shandilya told media persons that Junaid posted advertisements in reputed newspapers across the country inviting enquiries from people looking to earn good money by leasing out their lands for setting up cell phone towers or warehouses.

When interested people contacted the phone numbers given in the advertisements, the callers were explained that the group companies wanted to set up cell phone towers or construct warehouses for which the group required lands on lease basis, the police officer said.

Further, the callers were asked to go through the websites of their group companies to know the terms and conditions of the agreement and fill the details online. Later, the callers would be asked to pay money towards various charges, fees and deposits. For this, the gang had opened 54 bank accounts in the name of five persons, the officer said.

After extracting as much money as possible from the victims, the gang simply deactivated the mobile numbers known to the victim and used new phone numbers to cheat other victims. This way, the gang had cheated hundreds of people across the country and pocked about Rs 15 crore over the years, the police officer said.

One of the victims, Swayam Prakasham from Cyberabad, approached the police after he had paid Rs 35 lakh to the gang in the process of leasing out his lands in Patancheru and Odisha for setting up warehouses.

The police recovered a luxury car, one imported pistol, cash worth a few lakhs of rupees, dozens of mobile phones, used and unused SIM cards, debit and credit cards and other incriminating material from the accused.