Agartala: Feb 27: A new type of ATM card fraud has come to light in Agartala city. On Wednesday, East Agartala police station arrested five youths involved in the scheme, which was uncovered while attempting to defraud a local travel agency.
The incident began when a fraudster visited a travel agency in the Math Chaumuhani area to purchase a ticket to Jammu and Kashmir. The owner, Soumitra Kumar Banik, processed the transaction, and the accused paid Rs 10,000 online for the ticket. Shortly after, the fraudster returned, posing as a customer, and requested the ticket cancellation with a refund of Rs 10,000 to his account. Banik complied and returned the money.
Later, Banik received a call from Tamil Nadu police, informing him of illegal transactions made from his bank account, which led to its closure. Banik immediately reported the incident to East Agartala police, who began investigating and apprehended the fraudster.
Upon questioning, it was revealed that a group of individuals had orchestrated the fraud scheme, using ATM cards to launder black money. They paid people online and later retrieved the funds to launder the money. The group also encouraged people to open ATM cards and rent them out for two to three thousand rupees per month. The police seized a significant number of ATM cards, bank passbooks, and cash from the suspects.
An investigation uncovered that between 25 to 30 lakh rupees were deposited in each ATM card over the past six months. The arrested individuals, identified as Piyush Debnath, Narayan Debnath, Sagar Das, Riptadeep Biswas, and Rohan Rudra Pal, have been linked to a network that extends beyond the state. The police plan to bring the suspects into remand for further investigation. The case is currently being investigated by Officer-in-Charge Khokon Saha and Sub-Inspector Pritimoy Chakma.
