Phone Thief Steals Mobiles, Rs 5 Lakh Via UPI
The accused was apprehended in Vijayawada by the Cyber Crime Team: Reports
KARIMNAGAR: The Cybercrime police of Rajanna Sircilla district on Saturday arrested a man for stealing mobile phones and fraudulently withdrawing around ₹5 lakh using victims' PhonePe and Google Pay accounts. The accused was apprehended in Vijayawada by the Cyber Crime Team.
Superintendent of police Mahesh B. Gite, addressing the media, said the accused, identified as Harman Hari (32), is a resident of Musafaro village in Alipur district, West Bengal.
Harman, who reportedly had a gambling addiction and frequently played online games, used to travel from West Bengal and steal mobile phones from train passengers. After stealing the phones, he would change the device passwords, use stored Aadhaar and PAN details to reset UPI credentials, and then transfer money from the victims' PhonePe and Google Pay accounts to other accounts.
The case came to light after one of the victims, Sirikonda Srinivas, a resident of Manala village in Rudrangi mandal, filed a complaint stating that his mobile phone was stolen while travelling to Tirupati by train. The thief had withdrawn ₹5.12 lakh from his account using digital payment apps.
Using technical analysis, the cybercrime team successfully traced and arrested Harman, who was later produced before the court and remanded to judicial custody.
