Police have arrested six persons, allegedly involved in hacking of an email account of the principal at a prestigious school here.
The accused identified as Amit Shinde (26) was held from Satara district, while five others - Esaak Qazi (53), Arshad Ansari (20), Lokesh Patel (30), Vinodkumar Gautam (42) and Mukesh Soni (36) were caught from suburban Santa Cruz.
The six were held during an operation carried out on Sunday and Monday, police said, adding that they were produced before a court, which remanded them in police custody till Friday.
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With their arrest, it has emerged that the six persons, along with a few other wanted accused formed a racket. They were involved in such offences earlier too and succeeded in getting money deposited in their bank accounts, police said.
According to police, Vandana Lulla, the Director and Principal of Podar International School, had complained to them last Sunday alleging that her Gmail account had been hacked and false emails had been sent to friends and family.
"Lulla had received a number of phone calls from her relatives and friends expressing willingness to provide her financial assistance as per her email request. They told her that they received a mail mentioning an ICICI bank account number from her email account, seeking the monetary aide. Shocked, Lulla responded to her friends saying she did not send any such email and they should not deposit money in the bank account mentioned in the mail," a police officer said.
Accordingly, an FIR was registered at Santa Cruz police station.
Cyber Cell police of the Crime Branch, which conducted a parallel probe, traced the holder of the bank account mentioned in the fake email from Satara.
Amit Shinde (26) was arrested from Satara, police said adding that his interrogation led to the arrest of remaining five persons from the city here for conspiring and playing a key role in the offence.