Balangir: The Balangir Cyber Police have busted a cyber fraud network allegedly operating through mule bank accounts and arrested four persons in connection with fraudulent transactions worth Rs 35 lakh, police said on Wednesday.
The arrested persons have been identified as Prakash Sharma and Sanish, both residents of Raipur in Chhattisgarh, and Prashan Kumar Nag and Yuvraj, residents of the Loisingha police station area in Balangir.
According to police, the accused were allegedly operating the network from Raipur and opening mule bank accounts in the names of villagers. The villagers were reportedly paid commissions for allowing their accounts to be used for financial transactions.
Police said the bank accounts were allegedly used to receive and transfer money linked to cyber fraud. Transactions worth around Rs 35 lakh have so far been traced during the investigation.
During a raid conducted by the Cyber Police, four accused persons were arrested. However, the alleged gang leader, Aditya Dubey, and three others managed to flee the spot. Police have launched a search operation to trace and arrest the absconding accused.
The police also seized five mobile phones, 22 cheque books, 25 passbooks and 10 debit cards from the accused.
Balangir Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Saroj Kumar Upadhyaya said the accused allegedly used different names and identities to mislead people and evade police detection.
“They misguide people by using names such as Kalki, Avatar, Ravan and Joker. They operate under these names as business groups to mislead people,” Upadhyaya said.
The accused also allegedly used WhatsApp through virtual SIMs, making it difficult for investigators to trace their activities, the SDPO said.
“They do not use conventional SIM cards and instead use virtual SIMs for WhatsApp communication. This makes it difficult and time-consuming for police to trace them,” he said.
According to police, the arrested accused were allegedly transferring the fraudulently obtained money to accounts linked to the main fraudsters. Investigators are now trying to establish the complete money trail and identify other persons involved in the network.
“Once we arrest the main gang leaders, the details of all the transactions and the entire network will be disclosed. The four arrested accused will be forwarded to court today,” Upadhyaya said.
Police said the investigation is underway to ascertain the total amount involved in the alleged fraud and identify other members of the network.
