Bureau of Investigation (Economic Offences) arrests 2 directors of Quantoe Traders in Guwahati

ATM SWIPE MACHINE ‘DISTRIBUTORSHIP’

Duo ‘cheated’ many in Assam; now brought to Guwahati

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: In a major breakthrough, the Bureau of Investigation (Economic Offences) – BI(EO) on Sunday arrested the chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) and also the director of the company ‘Quantoe Traders’, namely Sujan Sarkar and Sutapa Roy respectively, from West Bengal. The company is registered with the Registrar of Companies (ROC) Shillong,

Additional Superintendent of Police (Addl SP) Purabi Majumdar informed that the arrested accused persons have been absconding and evading arrest for long. The duo now has been arrested under charges of cheating various persons across the Assam — especially from far flung areas — of crores of rupees by giving false promises of allotting them distributorship of ATM swipe machines.

Addl SP Majumdar added that “more and more victims are now coming forward through social media posts like the Facebook etc narrating how the duo duped them of their hard-earned money. All such victims are being examined by the BI(EO) and evidences are being collected.”

The accused persons reportedly operated from an office at Bora Service in Guwahati, and also engaged local accomplices as agents to carry out their fraudulent activities. After cheating the victims, they closed the office and fled away. They allegedly did not even pay any salary to the local persons whom they had engaged as employees in their office. The victims had lodged a complaint at BI(EO) this year. Based on the complaint, a case has been registered in October, 2019, under BI(EO) PS (15/19 u/s 120(b)/420/406 IPC read with Section 4/5/6 PC & MCS (b) Act.

Two main fraudsters and accomplices in the case namely Ranjit Hazarika and Ranjan Aich were apprehended from Lakhimpur and Tangla respectively in October itself. However the directors, namely Sujan Sarkar and Sutapa Roy, were absconding. Based on input, a BI(EO) team was sent to Alipurduar and after reconnaissance, the main accused persons were caught. First, Sutapa Roy — the director of the company — was apprehended from a residential locality in Alipurduar. CMD Sujan Sarkar was also arrested while he was trying to sneak away in his personal car. They were produced before the Court at Alipurduar and now brought to Guwahati on a transit remand.

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