By Firstdespatch Desk Feb 28, 2025
Agartala, Feb 28 (FD) Police have arrested five fraudsters in Agartala for their alleged involvement in a well-organized gang engaged in fraudulent activities to convert black money into white, police reported on Friday.
The scam came to light when one of the fraudsters visited a travel agency at Math Chowmuhani on Thursday and paid an advance of ₹10,000 for a ticket to Kashmir. However, after a few hours, he returned to the travel agency, canceled his trip, and received a refund.
Shortly after the fraudster left, the owner of the travel agency received a phone call from the Tamil Nadu police, informing him that his bank account had been frozen due to illegal money transactions.
Officer-in-Charge of East Agartala Police Station, Rana Chatterjee, stated that the travel agency owner, Soumitra Kumar Banik, immediately filed a complaint against the fraudster.
Following the complaint, the police launched an investigation, tracked down the suspect, and, based on his confession, arrested four other individuals involved in the scam.
Chatterjee explained that the gang encouraged people to open multiple bank accounts and rent out their ATM cards for ₹2,500 to ₹3,000 per month, which they then used for digital fraud.
During the investigation, police recovered several ATM cards and bank passbooks from the suspects, which were used for fraudulent transactions.
Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) of Sadar, Debaprasad Roy, stated that they had contacted the concerned bank authorities, who confirmed that each of the fraudulent accounts had transactions ranging from ₹25,000 to ₹30,000 per month.
The arrested fraudsters have been identified as Narayan Debnath, Sagar Das, Riptadeep Biswas, Rohan Rudra Paul, and Piyush Debnath.
"We are conducting further investigations, and initial findings suggest that an international racket may be involved in this fraud," Roy added. FD JK