The cyber crime wing of Uttar Pradesh police arrested three youths from a village under Habibpur police station of Malda district on Saturday night for allegedly siphoning nearly Rs 17 lakh from the bank account of a retired government employee of the northern state one-and-a-half years back.

Sujan Mandal, Ashish Barman and Uttam Barman were produced at a local court and taken to Prayagraj district of Uttar Pradesh on transit remand.

Sources said Ghanashyamji Swarnakar, the retired employee, filed a complaint at Kydganj police station of Prayagraj district that Rs 16.78 lakh had been siphoned from his bank by fraudsters who had impersonated as representatives of a cell phone service provider company.

An officer of the Uttar Pradesh police team said Swarnakar had received a call on October 15, 2020, where the caller introduced himself as the manager of a cell phone service provider and offered him the option of getting back the money Swarnakar spent to recharge his connection. The elderly man took up the offer and shared his personal and bank details with the caller. “In the next four days, he found Rs 16.78 lakh had been withdrawn from his account,” said the police officer.

Based on Swarnakar’s complaint, police started probing the case and found fake SIM card was used to the call.

As the inquiry progressed, a person was initially arrested from Bihar. The police also gathered details from the internet. It was eventually found that the entire racket runs from Malda's Habibpur.

Accordingly, a team of Uttar Pradesh police reached Malda, and on Saturday night, with help of Malda police, arrested the trio.

Photograph arrests

CPM worker Shafikul Alam and Congress worker Mozammel Haque were arrested by Chanchal police in Malda on Sunday for allegedly posting a distorted photograph of chief minister Mamata Banerjee on social media. The arrests were made after local workers of the Trinamul Chhatra Parishad filed a complaint with the police.