Mumbai police nab 5 for duping devotees over ‘helicopter ride’ during Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj

Mumbai: The Mumbai police have apprehended five members of a gang for allegedly cheating devotees online by promising them "helicopter rides" during their visit to Prayagraj for Kumbh Mela, an official said on Wednesday.

Four men from Bihar and a woman from Mumbai’s Andheri are among those nabbed. The gang ran a fake website offering helicopter rides at Kumbh Mela, the official said.

The action came after a woman recently approached the Cuffe Parade police station in south Mumbai with a complaint.

The woman said she and her family had planned a trip to Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh for a holy dip during the ongoing Kumbh Mela and were keen to see the mega congregation from the sky.

The complainant said she searched on Google for helicopter rides at Maha Kumbh and one of the outputs took her to a website. When she called the given number, the man on the other side offered her a discount and asked her to deposit Rs 60,652 for 26 persons. He also shared a QR (quick response) code to facilitate the payment, the official said citing the complaint.

However, the woman grew suspicious when she found out that the money reached the bank account of a woman named Sonamuni Devi instead of the helicopter service company.

When she tried to look for the website of the company the next day, she was not successful. The woman then asked the man, whom she had spoken earlier, about her money, but his answers were evasive. She then approached the police.

Around the same time, police also received a similar complaint from a Colaba resident, the official said.

Investigation showed that the woman’s money was withdrawn from an ATM in Bihar. Working on this input, the Cuffe Parade police visited Bihar and apprehended one Avinash Kumar alias Bittu from Bihar Sharif, the official said.

Bittu told the police that he had created the fake website offering helicopter rides and withdrew money through an ATM as instructed by the prime accused Mukesh Kumar. He also said Mukesh Kumar and Saurabh Kumar made calls to people about helicopter rides.

Police began tracking Mukesh and Saurabh and learnt that both were travelling on the Danapur-Secunderabad Express towards Secunderabad. With the help of the Government Railway Police, they apprehended the two when the train reached Nagpur station, the official said.

Following their interrogation, police also apprehended a woman working as a POS (point of sale) agent with a telecom company in Andheri and one more person for procuring a SIM card illegally, the official added.