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.