Pune:
More skeletons are tumbling out of the closet in the 'space-on-rent' scam of mobile towers. Interrogation of the suspect has revealed that the gang was also involved in a massage parlour racket in the city. The parlours have reportedly duped people of lakh of rupees.
The suspect Vaibhav Kalbhor alias Ashok Shinde, a resident of Sinhagad road, spilled the beans on the massage parlour racket, which has now led to the arrest of one woman identified as Aarti Sharma.
Other suspects in the racket Bharat Randive, Sachin Patil and Narendra Shinde are absconding. "A team from the Chinchwad police conducted search operations in Latur and Usmanabad, but the suspects could not be traced," said Police Inspector Shabbir Syed, who is investigating the case.
Sangram Andhe, the officer in the Vigilance Squad of the ICICI bank, who identified and caught hold of Kalbhor, has stated in his complaint that Kalbhor had opened an account in the name of Bhushan Prasad Raje (24) at the Chinchwad Station branch of ICICI bank. "When bank officials sent Nigdi resident Raje the account details and other information, he denied having opened any account.
After that the account was frozen," Andhe said. "Kalbhor and Aarti Sharma would place advertisements along with their mobile numbers in the regional newspapers about recruiting boys and girls for massage parlours," said Syed. "People seeking these jobs were asked to deposit money in the bank account. The deposited money would be immediately withdrawn and later the SIM card of the mobile number would be discarded."
Investigations have revealed that Aarti Sharma had recently opened an account in the ICICI bank with the help of fake documents. Just before her arrest, a transaction of Rs 10,000 from that account had taken place.
Vaibhav, Aarti and Randive along with other gang members have carried out transactions of Rs 2.55 lakh from the Bank of Maharashtra, Rs 1.39 lakh from State Bank of India and Rs 2.64 lakh from the ICICI bank.
"They had also opened an account in the Axis bank," said Syed. "During the investigation it has been established that the gang has duped citizens to the tune of Rs 21 lakh. Further investigations will reveal more such transactions."