Gang of cyber cheats who duped people seeking Ayurveda treatment busted, 3 held

New Delhi, Nov 12 (IANS) With the arrest of three men, the Delhi Police on Saturday claimed to have busted a gang of cyber criminals who used to dupe patients on pretext of providing Ayurveda treatment at Patanjali Yog Gram in Haridwar.

The accused have been identified as Harendra Kumar, 25, a resident of Rohtas, Bihar, Ramesh Patel, 31 and Ashish Kumar, 22, both residents of district Nalanda, Bihar.

Police said that the accused, who impersonated as Ayurveda doctors, had even created fake websites of Patanjali Yog Gram and used to receive calls from the patients for registration and bookings.

According to Sagar Singh Kalsi, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (north), a complaint on MHA Cyber Crime Portal from Nitin Sharma was received at Cyber Police Station of the North district wherein he alleged that he searched one mobile number on Google for Ayurvedic treatment of his son and contacted a mobile number mentioned on a website.

"When he contacted the given number, a person pretending to be Dr Sunil Gupta from Patanjali contacted him and directed him to pay Rs 10,000 as a registration fee. Subsequently, he was directed to pay an amount on different occasions for booking and Sharma paid around Rs 2,40,500 in an account provided by Dr Sunil Gupta. Sharma came to know about this fraud when he reached Patanjali Niramayam, Haridwar," said the DCP.

"During investigation, ownership details of the bank account were collected and it was found that the mobile number originated from Kolkata, West Bengal and was active in Nalanda, Bihar. While the money was withdrawn from different ATMs in West Bengal," said the official.

"One suspect, who had developed the website was identified and he was apprehended from Patna. Subsequently, other accused, Ramesh and Ashish were identified and they were nabbed by the team of Cyber North police station with cooperation from local Police Station Giriyak (Nalanda)," said the DCP.

"On interrogation, Ramesh and Ashish disclosed that they used to purchase pre-activated sims of West Bengal, Assam and Orissa from various sources. They also purchased pre-activated bank accounts, which were used for payment and withdrawal," said the official.

"The fake websites were created so that people looking for treatmen t at Patanjali Yog Gram will contact them for booking as no option of online booking for a stay at Patanjali Yog Gram was available on the internet," said the official.

"Money was withdrawn by different persons at different locations. Harender had created websites in name of https://tptayurved.in/ & https://theayurvedicupchar.com/ etc with Ayurveda and treatment as keywords which will appear on the screen of victim when anyone searches Ayurvedic Treatment or Patanjali Treatment etc on Google," the official said.