Navi Mumbai: CA arrested for cheating people through task fraud

On Tuesday, the Navi Mumbai police arrested a 35-year-old chartered accountant (CA) from Pune. He is accused of engaging in "task" fraud and allegedly cheating people out of lakhs of rupees.

The police apprehended Akash Umesh Pandey, a chartered accountant with a private firm, from Lohegaon in Pune on November 4 in a case registered against him under section 420 (cheating) and other relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act, senior inspector Gajanan Kadam of the cyber police station said.

The police had received a complaint from a resident of Navi Mumbai, who claimed to have lost Rs 17 lakh. The loss occurred as a result of performing various online tasks as instructed by the accused. These activities took place between August 9 and 14. Subsequently, the police initiated an investigation and successfully traced the bank account where the money was deposited, as well as the phone number associated with the transactions.

As a result, they froze the bank accounts and located the accused in Pune. Pandey, along with his associates in Delhi, was involved in four similar offences in Maharashtra and had 21 cyber cases in other states, he said.The cyber police have frozen Rs 5.9 lakh deposited in different bank accounts operated by the arrested accused, the official said