City cops retrieve Rs 3.05 lakh stolen from visually-challenged man

CHENNAI: The Bank Fraud Wing of the city police retrieved Rs 3.04 lakh swindled from a visually challenged man by a group, who had promised him loans at less interest rates.

A team secured 3 persons, including two women, who were operating from call centres at Uttam Nagar in New Delhi.

A D Saravanan (38), a visually challenged person from Saidapet, was approached by a woman in October 2020 over phone who claimed that she works for a finance firm – South Indian Finance Limited. She told Saravanan that her firm has foreign investments and can offer loans at 1% interest and convinced him to deposit money with the firm.

Saravanan deposited Rs 3.04 lakh in installments over several months. When he attempted to reach the agents, their numbers were switched off. Subsequently, Saravanan had sought police help to retrieve his lost money.

A special team of Central Crime Branch headed by Inspector Mahalakshmi was formed to trace the gang. Based on the information provided by Saravanan, police traced the bank accounts used by the gang and traced it to New Delhi.

“It’s a cottage industry in Uttam Nagar in New Delhi. These gangs buy bank accounts from casual labourers and rickshaw pullers for an amount and use these accounts to carry out their con. When a victim realises that he was conned and complains to the police, the accounts are freezed. Until then, they use these accounts and move on to the next victim,” Inspector Mahalakshmi said.

The police team arrested Santhi (37), Vasanthi (44) and Muni Sharma (44) from New Delhi and brought them to the city on Wednesday. They’ll be produced before a magistrate on Thursday.