4 arrested in 2 cyber fraud cases

Bhubaneswar: City police on Wednesday arrested Rudra Pratap Hota in connection with a cyber fraud under Operation Cyber Kavach. In another case, police arrested 3 persons for alleged cyber fraud under Chandrasekhapur police station.

Based on a complaint filed by sub-inspector Sulochana Mohanty during the “Cyber Kavach” operation launched by CID, Crime Branch and the State Cyber Crime Nodal Officer, police registered the case and started an investigation.

“We found a suspicious transaction of Rs 2,95,104 made through a Union Bank account in the name of Rudra Pratap Hota. The probe later revealed that several linked bank accounts were not used for genuine banking activity, but were allegedly opened to receive and transfer money generated through cyber fraud,” a police officer said.

Police said Hota, allegedly acting under the influence of his brother Suryakant Pradhan, opened multiple accounts in Union Bank, Axis Bank, Canara Bank, Indian Bank, Bank of Baroda and Bandhan Bank in Gudipali area under Sarankul police station in Nayagarh district. These accounts were allegedly used to route fraudulent funds through a cybercrime network. Around Rs 11 lakh was transacted through the accounts over the past 5 months, investigators said.

In another case, during an inspection at the Maitri Vihar branch of UCO Bank, it was discovered that suspicious accounts in the names of Jitendra Kumar Rout and Shiba Sankar Dakua were involved in significant fraudulent transactions over the past few months. Based on reliable information, police conducted a raid and arrested Rout and Dakua. During interrogation, they revealed the name of Goutam Sahoo as an associate, who was also arrested.