Family-run cyber fraud racket busted in Etawah, 4 bros held; Rs 91 lakh frozen

Kanpur: In a swift late-night swoop, Etawah police dismantled a family-run cyber fraud racket, arresting four brothers and freezing over Rs 91 lakh of illicit funds.Between April 25 and 26, joint teams from Basrehar and Vaidpura stations acted on a tip-off and set up checkpoints. Four youths on two motorcycles tried to flee when flagged down, but officers sealed the area and nabbed them near the Lohia Nahar bridge. The accused — Satish Kumar alias Manish, Hariom, Akhilesh and Ajit — are all brothers from Ayara village under Basrehar police station limits. Police also seized Rs 30,600 in cash from them.During questioning, police found that Satish had earlier worked in Panipat, where he allegedly learned cyber fraud techniques. He later involved his brothers in the operation.Police said the group used multiple methods to cheat victims and avoided direct transfers to their own bank accounts. The money was routed through several accounts to evade detection. It was then shown as inflated returns on apps like “82 Lottery” before being moved to accounts controlled by the accused. Some funds were also invested in cryptocurrency and online gold to make tracing harder.Police said the probe found around Rs 43 lakh on Binance, about Rs 1.5 lakh on Bybit and nearly Rs 1.25 lakh on the Jar app, all of which were put on hold.SSP Brajesh Kumar Srivastava said police recovered nine mobile phones, 19 ATM cards, four PAN cards, nine passbooks, two chequebooks and two motorcycles. The police team was awarded Rs 25,000.