Delhi Police arrest Punjab man for Rs 1.58 lakh traffic app fraud

New Delhi, Aug 26 (PTI) The Delhi Police apprehended a 24-year-old man from Punjab for allegedly duping a city resident of Rs 1.58 lakh by installing a malicious mobile application under the pretence of a pending traffic challan and hacking the victim’s phone, an official said on Tuesday.

The accused, identified as Ajay Kumar, a resident of Jalandhar, received the stolen amount in his credit card account, which was later encashed and deposited into multiple bank accounts to break the money trail, the police said. The credit card used in the crime has been recovered.

During interrogation, Kumar allegedly revealed that he was working with another person named Samar, who operated through an international number based in Portugal. Samar allegedly instructed Ajay to withdraw and redistribute the cheated amount to conceal its origin, the police said.

According to the police, a complaint was received at the Cyber Police Station from Ayush Goyal, a resident of Pitampura, who alleged that he was cheated of Rs 1.58 lakh through a fraudulent traffic challan link. The accused allegedly convinced the victim to install an APK file disguised as a pending traffic challan notification, thereby gaining access to his phone and siphoning off the money, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Bhisham Singh said.

A case was registered under Section 318 (4) (Cheating), and during the probe, it was found that the accused used an online platform to transfer the funds to a credit card.

"Since payment aggregators do not store full credit card details as per the RBI norms, the initial investigation was challenging. However, after analysing merchant data, aggregator records and beneficiary details, the team managed to trace the transaction trail," the officer said.

Ajay Kumar was later tracked to Jalandhar and arrested. He never met Samar in person and maintained contact solely through WhatsApp, the police added.

Further investigation is underway to ascertain his involvement in other similar frauds. PTI SSJ SSJ MPL MPL