Kolkata: Five persons were arrested, including two from the airport when they were trying to flee, in connection with multiple cases of financial fraud. Siddharth Doshi and Shiva Kumar Sonkar, both with links to Maharashtra and Rajasthan, were apprehended at the Kolkata airport in connection to an FIR filed on Sept 25 last year under sections of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and BNS, 2023. Searches at their homes led to seizure of four mobile phones, a laptop, five debit cards, and cash amounting to Rs 4 lakh. Both were produced in court on Wednesday, with cops taking them into custody.
Earlier, three more individuals — Rajesh Kumar Khandelwal from Bansdroni, and Abhinav P Mathran and Hemant Sikaria from Salt Lake — were arrested in connection with a fake investment app scam that defrauded victims of about Rs 40 lakh. The arrests resulted in the seizure of multiple electronic devices, including four mobile phones, a router, a laptop, six bank debit cards, 17 chequebooks, and three bank paying slips.
Cops have started a special vigil on Google Play Store to monitor and remove fraudulent apps that led to many co-mplaints in recent months. Cyber expert Bivas Chatterjee has been roped in to draft a letter to Google, urging it to enhance monitoring of apps that facilitate financial fraud. "These apps are often uploaded for a few days or weeks. Once reported for fraud, they are removed, only to be reintroduced under new names and interfaces," a cop said.