Three held for cheating patients online in name of Ayurveda treatment

New Delhi: Delhi police have busted a gang of cheaters who used to dupe gullible patients online in the name of booking and registration for providing them Ayurveda treatment, the police said on Saturday.

The accused created fake website of Patanjali Yoggram and received calls from patients and family members and impersonated themselves as Ayurvedic doctors for getting money online for registration and booking. Forged payment receipts and booking vouchers were sent to victims to gain trust, they added.

The victims would only find out that they were duped when they would visit Patanjali Yoggram, Haridwar physically for treatment, they added.

So far several victims all over the country have been identified who were duped by the gang with similar modus operandi.
The accused Harendra Kumar alias Harry (25), Ramesh Patel alias Ghantu (31) and Ashish Kumar alias Chhotu (22) from Bihar have been arrested in this regard.

Website Developer, pursuing Masters in Computer Application has also been arrested for creating such fake websites.
As many as 20 fake websites in the name Patanjali Yoggram and other Ayurvedic treatment centres were identified and details were sent to National Internet Exchange of India for blocking them.

Five laptops, ten mobile phones, 19 SIM Cards, 12 debit cards, 4 cheque books, 6 passbooks and one wifi modem also confiscated. Besides, their bank account with Rs 1,66,000 has also been frozen.

The police came to know about this racket after a complaint on Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Cyber Crime Portal from complainant Nitin Sharma had been received in Cyber Police Station 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 at the given number, a person pretended to be Dr. Sunil Gupta from Patanjali contacted him and directed him to pay online Rs 10,000 as registration fee. Subsequently, he was directed to pay amount on different occasions for booking and later on complainant paid Rs. 2,40,500 in the bank account number provided by Dr Sunil Gupta.

The complainant came to know about this fraud when he reached Patanjali Niramayan, Haridwar. At this, an FIR under section 420 of IPC was registered at cyber police station, the police added.

Subsequently, a dedicated team was handed over task to identify accused and arrest culprits. Technical analysis of call details was made. Ownership details of bank account was collected and it was found that mobile number originated from Kolkata, West Bengal and were active in Nalanda, Bihar, they added.

Whereas money was withdrawn from different ATMs in West Bengal.
One suspect was identified on the basis of call detail record (CDR) and manual information gathering in Bihar's Patna and a website developer was apprehended from Patna who created fake website for the accused https://tptayurved.in/ & https://theayurvedicupchar.com/ for accused, they added.

Subsequently, main accused was identified as Ramesh Patel of Dashrathpur in Bihar's Nalanda. On the basis of electronic and manual surveillance, accused Ramesh Patel and Ashish both were arrested by the team of Cyber North Police Station with cooperation from local Police Station Giriyak in Nalanda.

During interrogation, accused Ramesh and Ashish revealed that they would purchase pre-activated sims of West Bengal, Assam and Orissa from various sources.

Accused also purchased pre-activated bank accounts, which were used for payment and withdrawal. Accused further revealed that fake websites were created so that people looking for treatment at Patanjali Yoggram will contact them for booking as no option of online booking for stay at Patanjali Yoggram was available on internet.

Once victim, patient or family member of patient's contacts them on number mentioned on website, they introduced themselves as doctor of Patanjali Yoggram and charge money in name of booking and treatment. Money was withdrawn by different persons at different locations. Accused Harender revealed that he created website in name of https://tptayurved.in/ & https://theayurvedicupchar.com/ with ayurved and treatment as keyword which will appear on screen of victim when anyone search Ayurvedic Treatment or Patanjali Treatment etc. on Google. He also revealed that he keeps on changing number on website as numbers were marked as spam on true-caller after making some calls, the police added. (ANI)