Surat: Cyber Crime police have arrested three men, including a 64-year-old former college professor from Ghaziabad, for allegedly cheating a Surat policyholder of Rs 1.5 crore by promising to secure refunds on multiple insurance policies.The probe uncovered links to dozens of cyberfraud complaints registered across the country.The arrested accused are Atul Sharma (64), a retired professor who worked at IMT College in Ghaziabad, Mahesh Sharma (43) and Sonu Thakur (32). Police said Atul holds BSc and MBA degrees.According to the complaint, the accused contacted a Surat resident while posing as representatives of the insurance ombudsman and offered to facilitate refunds on about 15 insurance policies. They induced the victim to transfer money on various pretexts, including processing charges, and cheated the complainant of Rs 1.5 crore.Investigators said Atul allegedly arranged sim cards and bank accounts to use in the fraud by approaching people on the pretext of helping them obtain gas connections. Police said he retained 35% to 50% of the money obtained through the fraud and transferred the rest to Mahesh.Mahesh allegedly supplied sim cards and bank account details to Sonu, who contacted victims while posing as an insurance representative and extracted money from them.A Surat police team tracked the accused through technical analysis of mobile numbers and spent a week in Ghaziabad carrying out the investigation before arresting them.Police seized nine mobile phones, 42 cheque books, 17 passbooks, 90 debit cards, 25 sim cards, about 80 blank sim cards and cash from the accused.Further investigation revealed that 47 bank accounts linked to the racket had figured in 73 cyberfraud complaints registered across 15 states. Police said the complaints involved online fraud amounting to around Rs 33.10 lakh.
