Pune: Online payment apps like GPay and Paytm are becoming 'robbery tools' for tech-savvy suspects. On Tuesday, A 32-year-old man was robbed of Rs 3000 by three suspects in Dhayari area on Tuesday (October 6) night. The suspects forced the victim to transfer the amount through his Google Pay (GPay) account on the phone.
Similarly in August month, in the same Chavan Nagar area near Nanded in Dhayari, three suspects had forced a 34-year-old man to transfer Rs 81,000 from his Paytm and Google Pay accounts. The victim was lured by the suspects through a social networking app for gays.
In the recent incident, Ketan Patil (32), a resident of DSK Vishwa in Dhayari has filed a complaint in this regard at the Sinhagad Road police station. Based on his complaint, Sinhagad road police have filed FIR against three unidentified suspects in this case. This incident has highlighted the cons of using online payment accounts through the mobile which are otherwise useful for any common citizen.
According to the complaint, Ketan Patil was at his home in DSK Vishwa in Dhayari on Tuesday evening. At around 7pm, he decided to visit his friend Junaid Deshmukh who stays at Nanded City in Dhayari. Ketan Patil took his car and started driving towards Nanded City. He crossed the Chavanbaug area. One kilometer ahead the suspects had blocked the road by parking their bike in the middle of the road.
The suspects surrounded Ketan Patil and started abusing and threatening him. They forcibly removed the car key and asked Ketan to step out. Then they threatened the complainant of damaging his car. After this, the suspects forcefully took the mobile handset from Ketan Patil and asked for the passwords. They used Ketan Patil's GPay account and transferred an amount of Rs 3000 to their own account. After transferring the amount, the suspects let go Ketan Patil.
Ketan was terrified with this experience and immediately approached the Sinhagad Road police station. He filed a complaint against the three unknown persons. Assistant Police Inspector S V Umare is probing the case.
A few days earlier, suspects had entered the house of a senior citizen and robbed his bank cheque book and passbook. The suspects later withdrew around Rs 40 thousand from the bank account using the cheques. A case was lodged in this regard at the Khadak police station.
