Train ‘pal’ holidays after loan fraud, 38-year-old arrested for notorious activity
Telegraph | 11 August 2025
A 38-year-old man was arrested on Friday for allegedly
cheating a woman whom he had befriended on a train and later managed to take
her ATM card and PIN to withdraw money from her account after he fraudulently
secured a loan in her name.
Police said Avijit Saha, a resident of Shyampukur
Street, was arrested from a resort in north Bengal on Friday evening by
officers of Bhowanipore police station, where he was holidaying after allegedly
duping a woman whom he had met two months ago on the Dhauli Express.
During the investigation, the police are said to have found that Saha has
multiple criminal cases against him.
“His modus operandi is to befriend
co-passengers on trains by introducing himself as a bank official. Once the
fellow passengers start believing him, he would cook up a story of a medical
emergency at home and convince them to hand over their ATM card and pin,” said
an officer at Lalbazar.
Saha would allegedly also gain access to his
victims’ phones and apply for loans from their accounts. “In this case,
Saha took a loan in the victim’s name and after the amount was transferred to
her account, he used her ATM card to withdraw the money,” the officer
said.
“Saha has multiple cases all over Bengal. His motto is to tour
various parts of Bengal with the stolen money,” the officer said. He has
been remanded to judicial custody.