The Patiala police on Wednesday unearthed a gang involved in duping Patiala MP Preneet Kaur and businessmen, whose accounts, the gang knew, were managed by their staff and they would “not bother about transactions” worth lakhs.
Kaur, who is the wife of Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, was duped of Rs 23 lakh by the gang. Kaur was in Delhi attending the monsoon session of Parliament last week when she received a call from a man claiming to be a manager at the State Bank of India.
The man claimed he wanted to deposit her salary and asked for her account number, ATM pin and CVC number. He also asked for the OTP number which she had received. As soon as Kaur gave him the details, she received an SMS saying Rs 23 lakh had been withdrawn from her account.
Kaur informed the police following which the cyber cell started investigation and traced the caller to Ranchi in Jharkhand.
Patiala SSP Mandeep Singh Sidhu said several gang members, some of whom were in different parts of the country, had been arrested and the money recovered.