Bhubaneswar, Jan 3 (PTI) An inter-state gang that stole mobile phones and then transferred money from the victims' accounts using the SIM cards in them was busted in Odisha with the police arresting its eight members on Wednesday, officials said.

The 'Pahadi Gang', which operated professionally, used to "employ" thieves for stealing mobile phones in public places by creating artificial crowds and paid them a monthly salary of Rs 10,000 to 15,000, they said.

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These thieves would hand over the stolen mobile phones to the leader of the gang who would transfer money online from the victims' accounts using the sim cards, they added.

Bhubaneswar's Deputy Commissioner of Police Prateek Singh said the 'Pahadi Gang' came onto their radar after a person registered a case at the Capital police station, alleging he was defrauded of Rs 14 lakh.

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"Since then, we have been tracking the movements of the gang members. Arresting them was a challenging task as the gang members operated individually and very frequently changed their locations," he said.

"The gang is active in most states of the country. They steal mobile phones from people in public buses, busy markets and during festivals by creating artificial crowds. Thereafter by utilising SIM cards of stolen mobiles, they transferred money online," he added.

Nine cases were detected only in Bhubaneswar, Singh said, adding that 22 mobile phones, 25 SIM cards, 20 memory chips and Rs 1.3 lakh in cash were seized from them.

Illegal transactions of about Rs 20 lakh have been detected so far, he said.

"Investigation is going on to find other members of the gang. We are also searching for those helping the gang with the technical aspects," he added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)