With the arrest of nine people, the Noida Police busted a gang of thugs allegedly involved in duping people from various states in the name of getting their bank loans cleared, a police official said Friday.
The gang had also lured several men and women by offering them jobs as their "field agents" who got them more clients from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan etc in need of loans, he said.
The kingpin of the gang along with his associates was held Thursday evening from their office in Sector 63 here, which comes under the jurisdiction of Phase 3 police station, Superintendent of Police (City) Arun Kumar Singh told reporters.
"The gang operated under the name of Agro Business Solutions Private Limited and offered to get people their loans cleared. However, they would ask them to remit some money in the name of 'processing fee' for the clearance of the loan. The victims would be asked to remit the sum -- 10 per cent of the loan amount -- in the firm's bank account," Singh said.
So far, they have duped "several dozens" of people, he said, adding that the estimated amount of fraud money collected by the gang was somewhere between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 25 lakh.
"A probe is underway to get the gang's all bank accounts, including those in the State Bank of India and the Punjab National Bank, checked to ascertain the exact amount," the SP said.
It had been around three to four months since the gang had put up their office in Noida and prior to this they were operating from Meerut using the same modus operandi.
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"They had a proper office like any other with full set up, including the nine-member staff, computers and telephones. They had lured people from far off places and given them fake jobs with the rank of company's field agent. Once these agents would get them some clients and money, the gang would cut off all connections with these field agents," the SP said.
Based on a complaint lodged against the firm on Thursday, a case was registered.
"Arjun Saini, a resident of Udaipur district in Rajasthan had alleged that the company had offered them a job of field agent and got several persons to put Rs 3.56 lakh in the firm's bank account. When Saini on behalf of the people demanded the loan money, the people from the firm abused him and threatened to kill him," the officer said.
When the police raided the office, it emerged that the gang had conned several other people in the same manner.
The police have also seized a laptop, printer, list of phone numbers and other documents, including the company's fake appointment letters, job offer letters, loan application forms, bank verification forms, Singh said.
Those arrested were identified as Javed, the gang's kingpin, Ravindra Singh, Sonhaveer Singh -- all three from Meerut, Vipin Kumar and Farman from Muzaffarnagar, Anit Singh from Baghpat, and Jolly, Mohd Tazamur and Akash Kumar from Meerut.
"All the accused are graduates and had understanding of the Information Technology sector," he said.
They were booked under IPC Sections 420 (cheating), 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust), 120 B (criminal conspiracy) 507 (criminal intimidation) and related offences, according to the police.
All of them were remanded to judicial custody, they added.
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