Bulgarian man wanted in Mumbai case of 2013 traced with Interpol help

The Colaba police reached out to the Mumbai Police special branch and the immigration department for details on the suspects, subsequently identified as Ivanov and Tsenev Yulian Georgiev. They were 26 and 27 years old respectively at the time of committing the crime.

2013 Bulgarian nationals fraud case, Colaba Police, Mumbai news, Mumbau police Interpol, Ivanov Kalin Ivanoy, extradition to India, indian express news

The Mumbai police received a letter from Interpol in April stating that one of the accused, Ivanov Kalin Ivanoy, had been detained by Bulgarian authorities and investigators initiated a process to get him extradited to India. (Express Photo)

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A decade after two Bulgarian nationals siphoned off cash from the bank accounts of 79 individuals by allegedly installing skimmers and a pinhole camera at an ATM near the office of Maharashtra Director General (DG) of Police in Colaba, the Mumbai police have managed to track one of the accused in Bulgaria.

“We had learnt that the two suspects came to Mumbai from Bulgaria on April 4, 2013, and che-cked into a five-star hotel in Worli. They installed skimmers in the ATM and after collecting data, the two escaped back to Bulgaria on 19 April 2013. They used the card details to siphon money in June,” a Mumbai police officer said.

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A case under relevant sections of theft, cheating, forgery and conspiracy was registered at Colaba police station on June 14, 2013. At the time of filing the FIR, a total of Rs 15.47 lakh was estimated to have been siphoned from the bank accounts of 37 persons, including police personnel. Further probe revealed that 79 people, including 15 policemen, had lost Rs 22.88 lakh.

The Colaba police reached out to the Mumbai Police special branch and the immigration department for details on the suspects, subsequently identified as Ivanov and Tsenev Yulian Georgiev. They were 26 and 27 years old respectively at the time of committing the crime.

The Mumbai police, with the help of CBI’s National Central Bureau, issued a lookout circular against the two followed by a red corner notice and blue corner notice. Subsequently, on August 23, 2013, the Colaba police filed a 496-page chargesheet against the two Bulgarians.
However, the case did not move until April 2023 when the Mumbai crime branch received Interpol’s letter.

A senior police officer said: “Since there is an extradition treaty between India and Bulgaria, the authorities responded to the red corner notice and the blue corner notice that we had released ten years ago.”

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The Mumbai police are now translating the chargesheet submitted in 2013 to the Esplanade Court in Marathi to English, and also to the Bulgarian language. “We shall submit a copy of the chargesheet in English and Bulgarian languages to the Mumbai crime branch, Maharashtra government, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of External Affairs,” a senior police officer said.