Three ‘CBI officers’ held for extorting money from woman

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested two imposters and a hacker for extorting money from a business woman in the name of the agency. The CBI found that the hacker spoofed the agency email address to send mails to the victim.

Two accused were arrested from Mumbai on Thursday late night and the hacker was held from Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj.

Two arrested imposters are Amit Kumar Singh alias Abhishek Jha and Shivanshu Sharma. Amit Kumar Singh was posing as a CBI official named Abhishek Jha and Shivanshu Sharma as his subordinate.

They have been arrested on allegations of threatening and extorting money from Mumbai-based woman.

The complainant alleged that she was being threatened by some CBI officers in the name of making adverse report in an enquiry being conducted by another law enforcement agency, which actually had finalised the report.

“The imposters were calling the woman and sending WhatsApp messages using mobile phones, registered on fake names and addresses,” said a senior CBI officer.

During verification of the complaint, it was found that one of the accused Viresh Pathak, who is on the run, was posing as Special Investigation Officer, Senior Superintendent of Police of CBI posted with Anti Corruption Branch, Delhi. And his accomplice Abhishek Jha was acting as his subordinate, the officer said.

The victim claimed to have received mails from Viresh Pathak’s email address in which she was asked to produce details about her company and her business dealings.

During the course of further conversation between victim and the accused, the complainant was asked to pay Rs 10 lakh and finally the amount was settled at Rs 5 lakh.

The agency registered an FIR on October 21 against Abhishek Jha and Viresh Pathak and other unknown persons under section 120B (Criminal Conspiracy), 384 (extortion) 490 (Breach of contract), 420 (Cheating), 468 (forgery) and 471 (forged documents) of the Indian Penal Code and section 66C (Identity Theft) and 66D (Cheating by personation online) of Information and Technology Act.

These persons were found to be operating from Mirzapur and Bengaluru. It was also found that some one was issuing directions to the accused from Bengaluru through conference call.

Abhishek Jha and Shivanshu, who was acting as Jha’s subordinate, were arrested on October 24 late night when they arrived in Mumbai from Mirzapur to collect money from the complainant.

“During investigation it was found that email were spoofed by Mohammad Isrhad Ansari from Prayagraj and he was arrested today (Friday),” said the officer adding that hunt is on to nab other accused.