Chandigarh/Palwal (Face2News)

In a major breakthrough, Haryana Police has busted a gang whose members used to siphon off money from people’s account using the Aadhar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) by cloning the fingerprints in Palwal district.

Haryana Police spokesperson informed that five members of the gang including a woman who were involved in online fraud worth crores of rupees were also arrested by conducting raids at different locations in Delhi and Palwal.

He said that a special team was formed after complaints were reported in the district about money being withdrawn without actual account owners making any transactions. Police have registered 43 cases of online fraud between May 24 and June 2, 2021. Police has also recovered one biometric machine, 11 debit cards of different banks, 270 SIM cards (Vodafone, Idea, Airtel etc.), fingerprint rubber stamp machine, 5 bottles rubber gel photo polymer, 1 laptop, printer, one lamination machine, 2078 copies of registries (out of which 10 copies used in online fraud) 220 fingerprint clone, 68 blank Aadhar cards, 21 PAN cards, 64 passport size photographs, 5 Aadhar cards, 1 pen drive etc.

Police has also recovered one biometric machine, 11 debit cards of different banks, 270 SIM cards (Vodafone, Idea, Airtel etc.), fingerprint rubber stamp machine, 5 bottles rubber gel photo polymer, 1 laptop, printer, one lamination machine, 2078 copies of registries (out of which 10 copies used in online fraud) 220 fingerprint clone, 68 blank Aadhar cards, 21 PAN cards, 64 passport size photographs, 5 Aadhar cards, 1 pen drive etc.

Divulging the details, he said that fraudsters made attempts to get the documents used for fraud from the staff of registry offices. When they did not succeed in doing so, the scammers contacted a private person who did the binding of registry documents in Palwal tehsil and obtained copies of documents of registry done at a high cost. Then they cloned the fingerprints of sellers and purchasers and carried out illegal transactions through biometric devices using Xpresso RoiNet Wallet, Spice Money Wallet, Payworld Wallet, Payson/Fingpay/Paymonk Wallet. They used to withdraw amounts upto Rs 10,000 using fingerprint clones and committed online fraud worth crores of rupees.

Arrested accused were identified as Rohit (33), a resident of Ghaziabad in UP, Chitranjan (28) of Bihar, Amir Hussain (27) district Chapra, Bihar, Kiran (28) of Bihar presently living at Najafgarh, Delhi and Tularam (40) of village Khatela in Palwal.

Primary probe and disclosure statement revealed that the gang is involved in all the 43 cases registered.
“We are trying to gather more information about the involvement of others and how many innocent people were cheated by the gang members through online fraud”, added Superintendent of Police, Palwal, Sh. Deepak Gahlawat.