Inter-state multi-crore cyber fraud gang busted; 9 held

Lucknow: Gonda cyber cell police unearthed an interstate cyber fraud racket siphoning crores of rupees through mule bank accounts across nine states and arrested nine accused, while freezing Rs 14.87 crore linked to suspicious transactions.

The arrested, including Aman Singh, Kuldeep Verma, Rohit Singh, Suraj Kumar Singh, Mohit Singh, Ranjeet Kumar, Mohammad Arif, Mohammad Sameer and Alok Gupta, have cybercrime cases against them. Mohammad Sameer faces two criminal cases in Kanpur Nagar, while Aman Singh has a case registered against him in Rohtak, Haryana.

The gang targeted victims in UP, Delhi, Odisha, Haryana, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh.

Police recovered 347 bank passbooks, 177 ATM cards, 22 Aadhaar cards, 10 mobile phones, Rs 20,290 in cash and three motorcycles and froze Rs 14,87,06,879 deposited through mule accounts, said Gonda SP Vineet Jaiswal.

The accused lured people from rural and economically weaker backgrounds, promising benefits under govt welfare schemes before getting bank accounts opened in their names and collecting their passbooks, ATM cards and cheque books. The accounts were used to receive money through cyber fraud and online scams and divided it among themselves.

The probe further revealed that police had identified 46 bank accounts linked to the accused. Of these, 17 accounts registered with various banks had a total of 212 complaints lodged against them on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP). In recognition of the operation, the Gonda police also announced a cash reward of Rs 25,000 for the cyber cell team that cracked the case.