Kolkata Police In Bhubaneswar, Seek Custody Of ‘Jamtara Gang’ Members

A team of Kolkata Police arrived in Bhubaneswar on Thursday seeking custody of the three members of the notorious ‘Jamtara Gang’ who were arrested in Bhubaneswar last month.

The Kolkata police moved the SDJM court in the Odisha Capital city seeking permission to obtain the remand of the trio in order to interrogate them in connection with a series of cyber frauds reported in the metropolis.

As per reports, the crooks were involved in several fraud cases in seven states including West Bengal and Telangana, where 45 fraud cases have been registered against them.

The Odisha Crime Branch had arrested the three cyber fraudsters the (otherwise) elusive Jamtara gang, who were wanted in over 170 cases across 20 states in the country, from Bhubaneswar on January 29 this year.

The trio was identified as Pradhum Kumar Mandal, Krishnakumar Mandal and Chetlal Mandal. All the three are residents of Jharkhand. They were holed up in a rented accommodation in Bhubaneswar since December last year.

Following their arrest, the Crime Branch had stated that the trio is a part of a larger 'Jamtara gang' (cyber criminal gangs operating out of Jamtara in Jharkhand) which has been defrauding people across the country through UPI, credit card and other frauds.

During interrogation, the three allegedly admitted to have been contacting a large number of people in Odisha and other states by sending bulk SMS and Voice calls impersonating as bank officials. They would ask the unsuspecting account holders to share their bank details for KYC updating.

Notably, the number of unified payments interface (UPI) frauds have witnessed a surge in recent days and the Commissionerate Police have received more than 100 such reports in the month of January 2022 alone.

As per police sources, the cyber fraudsters managed to loot around Rs 8 crore from the victims in Bhubaneswar last year.