Thiruvananthapuram, 30 July (H.S.): The investigation into the alleged international loan app fraud operating from Thiruvananthapuram gathered pace on Thursday with the city police bringing the second accused, Rana Maheshbahi Parth, from Ahmedabad for further questioning. Parth, who had allegedly fled the city after the arrest of other members of the racket, was detained at Ahmedabad airport on Wednesday before being formally arrested by a special police team from Thiruvananthapuram.

Police said Parth is among the key members of the syndicate that allegedly targeted residents of the United States through fraudulent loan recovery operations conducted from a call centre in the city.

The investigation has now shifted to tracing two absconding accused, Akash Deep Chaudhari and Rahul, both natives of Chitrakoot in Uttar Pradesh. Investigators suspect Akash to be the mastermind behind the operation. A look-out notice has been issued against both accused, while police are also examining whether the gang has links to similar cyber fraud cases registered in other states.

The First Information Report names 13 accused, with Rahul listed as the 13th accused. They have been booked under charges including criminal conspiracy, extortion, cheating, forgery, abetment and relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act.

According to the police, the accused operated an unauthorised call centre named Sreedhar Coinvotech Limited from a building at Pongumoodu. Investigators found that the group allegedly accessed details of American users of a loan application called Lendjet and contacted them through Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology using desktop softphones.

Police said the accused allegedly used forged documents to intimidate victims into sharing Social Security details and paying bogus late fees and processing charges. Officials said the full scale of the fraud would emerge only after forensic examination of the seized computers, mobile phones and other digital devices is completed.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Arun Lakshman