Bhubaneswar: The EOW Odisha has arrested another person in connection with the illegal loan app case. The accused was identified as Tarun Dudeja, a resident of Sector-48 in Gurgaon. He was nabbed from Bhubaneswar on May 14 in connection with a case filed by the EOW on April 21.
Dudeja has been booked under Sections 294/506/507/420/467/468/120 of the IPC and Section 66 D of IT Act. He will be produced before the Court of SDJM, Bhubaneswar, today, the EOW stated.
Earlier in this case, Director of a shell company “IWT” was arrested and cash of Rs 6.57 crore was frozen. Tarun Dudeja is the director/proprietor of following dubious/ shell companies: DIGITAL BATUA, IPAISA ONLINE SERVICES PRIVATE LIMITED, SWITZ INFOTECH PRIVATE LIMITED, BAZARPE INFOTECH PRIVATE LIMITED, Milanum enterprise, and BACCHAT ONLINE.
“Total 41 postpaid SIM cards in the name of various other persons were seized from him. He along with Javed Sahifi used to lure their employees/ interested/ vulnerable / poor people to allow them to open bank accounts and take SIM cards using their name. These accounts would be used to channelize the money collected through illegal loan APPs,” an EOW official said.
The mobile/SIM numbers connected to these bank account would be actually handled by the fraudsters. All the related information/ call/ OTP would land on these mobile numbers which are handled by fraudsters not by the actual/official account holder.
“This mechanism is used to create extra layers to confuse/ distract law enforcement agencies/ police. Generally they use 3-4 layers before money is landing at the mastermind’s account. They disclosed that they pay around Rs one to two lakh to person concerned
for allowing the bank account/ SIM to be used as Mule Account,” the EOW official added.
The EOW has issued advisories for the public, after this case came to light. It stated:
Do not give your documents for opening of bank accounts to be operated by someone else and also don’t allow anybody to use your SIM to be used by someone else. These things can be used for illegal purposes.
Don’t surrender to abusive/ torturous method of recovery agents of these Loan App companies. Report the matter to local Police.
