between the Ongoing research In an online scam related to the West Bengal government’s ‘Tarunar Sapna’ scheme, the state police has registered a total of 142 cases and arrested at least 38 people, allegedly for stealing funds to buy tablets from students.
Additionally, the Kolkata Police has registered 18 cases and arrested more than 10 people, while the number of victims is 127.
West Bengal Police arrested two more persons in Chopra of North Dinajpur district on Thursday, bringing the total number of arrests to 40.
“In a joint operation of Asansol Durgapur Police Commissionerate Cyber Police Station and Chopra Police Station, a person named Mahbub Alam was arrested from Daspara village panchayat area. He has an online cafe in this area,” the police said.
On the other hand, officers of Chopra Police and Basirhat Cyber Police Station arrested another person identified as Mohammad Yasin Ali from Chutiakhor village panchayat area in a joint operation. Yasin is a quack by profession.
Chopra has been identified by police as a hotspot for online tablet fraud, prompting a series of investigations and arrests. Special police teams from different districts have reached Chopra police station area to investigate various cases.
Recently, three people from North Dinajpur were detained in connection with online tab fraud and more were arrested in Siliguri and Malda, with the suspects believed to be part of the same gang.
Acting on a tip-off, a police team was deployed in Kishanganj, which arrested the three main suspects Diwakar Das (28), Gopal Rai (28), and Vishal Dhali (23) in Siliguri. They are believed to be key figures in the scam.
“As soon as the research started, new names started trickling in every day. This group is working in different districts. According to sources, 3 accused were arrested by the SIT from Siliguri last Monday, November 25 during the investigation. One of them was a primary school teacher. Earlier in the day, Malda police arrested Manojit Burman, a primary school teacher from Dinhata in Cooch Behar on Sunday,” the police said.
Kolkata Police has formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) and according to them many people are involved in this online fraud.
‘SIT has been formed to investigate how the incident happened and the root of the corruption. As the investigation began, one name after another came forward. “According to the preliminary findings of the police, the miscreants committed the crime by accessing the school server or stealing the password of the portal,” officials said.
“In the modus operandi of the fraud, funds released from government funds for the purchase of tabs are transferred from the bank accounts of the real beneficiaries to the leased accounts,” police said.
“The money withdrawn from the state government fund was deposited in the accounts of the fraudsters instead of going to the beneficiary students,” the police said.
The state education department had collected Rs 10,000 to buy tabs for class 11 and 12 students under the Tarunar Sapna project before the pooja.
Nazreen Nahar, a teacher of Kestopur Deshapriya Balika Vidyamandir, filed a complaint with Vidhannagar cyber crime department last month saying that funds were missing from the accounts of 48 students.
“When the project money started going to the student’s account, 48 students said that their money was not deposited. They had cheated each other to the tune of 10,000 rupees,’ Nazarin told the police, ‘The account in which the money was deposited belongs to a government bank in Kishanganj, Bihar.
According to sources, the school authorities upload students’ name, account number, IFSC code under the ‘Taruner Sapna’ scheme on the ‘Bangalore Shiksha’ portal, thereby depositing money in the students’ accounts. They uploaded it on the ‘Bangla Shiksha’ portal and took a print out of it.
“When we looked at the uploaded printout for the second time, we saw that the IFSC code of the account was the same but the account numbers had been changed,” sources said.
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