Won’t stop till we arrest all accused: DCP Singh

Pune: After the arrest of two accused in the Rs 94 crore Cosmos Bank online fraud, the Pune police are on hunt to arrest the other accused persons and the mastermind of the hacking fraud.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (EOW and Cyber Crime) Jyoti Priya Singh, while talking to reporters on Wednesday, said, “Those arrested on Tuesday are just foot soldiers and working on commission. There are many more yet to be arrested. Our team is looking out for them and will not stop till we arrest all the accused involved in this fraud, including the kingpin.”

Singh said that the two accused, Fahim Mehfooz Shaikh (27), a resident of Noorani Complex in Bhiwandi and Fahim Azim Khan (30), a resident of Sillod in Aurangabad, were working on commission and were assigned with the job of withdrawing money from ATMs using cloned cards. “They were part of the ring, which withdrew Rs 2.5 crore in India. The duo, along with five others, who haven’t been arrested yet, has withdrawn cash to the tune of Rs 89.47 lakh from various ATMs in Kolhapur using cloned debit cards,” she said.

“The fraud is widely spread and has multiple levels to it. But our team is doing its best and will nab all the accused involved in it,” added Singh The arrested accused were produced in the Shivajinagar court on Tuesday and were remanded to seven-day police custody.

As per the remand report submitted by the police, Fahim Shaikh and Fahim Khan were involved in withdrawing cash from different ATMs in Kolhapur between 3 pm to 10 pm on August 11. The police have recovered Rs 3.55 lakh from the arrested accused. 

The five others, whose complete identity is not yet known, have been identified by the police as Mahesh Rathod, Kunal, Ali, Mohammad and Anthony.

The initial investigation of the city police, along with cyber crime cell of the city police, has revealed that in India, 413 cloned debit cards were used in different cities to withdraw around Rs 2.5 crore in 2,800 transactions.