Cyberpolice arrest five fraudsters who cheated students

Gadag: Cyberpolice arrested 5 fraudsters who cheated students by opening accounts in their names and withdrew money. A case is registered under relevant sections of the IT Act and BNS, with the investigation ongoing. The accused were produced before court, and further legal action is pending, including custody for detailed interrogation and tracing additional suspects.DSP, Cyber Crime Police Station (CCPS), Gadag, said in a press release that mobile phones and bank passbooks used in the crime were seized in connection with a case registered on March 11. "Vakdoth Vakeel Devendra Nayak and Raju Rekhenayak, both residents of Dasarahalli Tanda, Huvina Hadagali taluk, Vijayanagara district, approached the students of the Post Metric Professional Boys' Hostel located on Kalasapur Road in Gadag. By gaining their trust through false promises of scholarship money and other inducements, they convinced the students to open bank accounts in their respective names at the Bank of Maharashtra in Gadag and Haveri districts, and they provided the initial deposit of Rs 2,000 for each account."After these accounts were opened, the accused deceitfully collected the passbooks, ATM cards, internet banking details, and the SIM cards linked to these accounts. Based on the information gathered regarding this fraud, a case was registered on behalf of the govt on March 11, and the investigation started. We received information on March 11 that the accused Vakdoth Vakeel and Raju were travelling to Goa to hand over the collected bank passbooks, ATM cards, linked SIM cards, and internet banking user IDs and passwords.""Tracking their location, a team led by the DSP, along with Gadag cybercrime personnel, apprehended 5 individuals and brought them to the Gadag CCPS for interrogation. During the inquiry, it was confirmed that the accused lured innocent account holders with false promises to open bank accounts in order to misuse them for cyberfrauds, and subsequently collected all their account-related information," he added.The accused revealed that they travelled to Goa to discuss the commission for the 8 fraudulently opened bank accounts with one of the other accused, Kumar, a resident of Attikatti tanda. However, Kumar is not yet traced. Based on the information provided by the accused, Zeeshan Ansari alias Zeesu, 22, a hotel worker from Jharkhand; Akash Suryamohan, 32, a DJ artiste from Chhattisgarh; and Sahil Manohar Tekchandani, 22, a student from Chhattisgarh, were taken into custody.Police seized 11 mobile phones and 8 bank kits. The accused were produced before the court. It is learnt that the accused opened several more such accounts. The search is on for 3 more absconding accused, the release asserted.