Major cybercrime gang busted in Guwahati, 4 arrested
The city police busted a major bank fraud gang, resulting in the arrest of four individuals connected to the case.
The arrested have been identified as Bablu Das (29) alias Halowa, son of Narayan Das of Uzan Bazar; Anvesh Chandra (22), son of Ankesh Chandra of Classic Residency, Flat No 3A, near GNRC Hospital; Chinmoy Chakraborty (27), son of Ambika Chakraborty, a resident of Regent Paradise, Bhetapara and Abinash Mahato (23), son of late Dharmeswar Mahato, a resident of Uzanbazar wart street.
They have been charged with Cyber Police Station case number 22/24 under section 468/420/406 of IPC.
The case was registered based in a complaint lodged by one Rahit Ali, who reported an unauthorised transaction from his bank account opened at Federal Bank, Christianbasti branch.
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday Guwahati Commissioner of Police Diganta Barah said the cyber-criminal gangs opened several bank accounts for multiple transactions of the money generated by duping gullible citizens. These gangs do not use their own bank accounts to cheat the gullible public as that would give clues to the investigating agencies which will lead the investigating agencies to the cyber-criminals.
“The cyber gangs open several bank accounts in fake names and by providing fake documents with the help of some unscrupulous bank employees. But these days bank officials have become more careful and these cyber gangs are finding it difficult to open accounts with fake names and fake details,” Barah said.
“They have also started employing agents to open bank accounts in the name of genuine persons with genuine documents and these accounts will be operated by the cyber-criminals for generating money through cybercrime,” Barah also said.
Barah further said these agents target unsuspecting persons, mainly illiterate and of lower economic strata, and convince them to open a bank account in return of some lump-sum amount. These unsuspecting persons open bank accounts by furnishing Aadhar Cards, PAN Cards etc, but the phone numbers to be linked in the respective bank accounts are provided by the agents. These agents obtain SIM cards of different mobile service providers in fake names. Once the bank accounts are opened, the instant Account Kits containing pass book, ATM Cards, cheques book etc are collected by these agents who hand those kits over to their associates. The bank account kits are passed on by Post to their associates sitting mainly in other states and abroad too (mainly in Dubai).
He said as the linked mobile numbers are provided by these agents only, the Cyber Criminal gang activates the ATM Cards through mobile banking and then starts operating the respective accounts for different transactions.
He also said the main agent receives Rs 50K to 60K against each such account provided upward.
“The original account holder does not come to know about the transactions which are carried out in his bank account by these gang members as messages from the bank go to the gang’s mobile number only,” the Commissioner of Police said.
Whenever police investigate cyber fraud, police can’t reach the cyber criminals by tracking these bank accounts as these original account holders are not aware of who is operating these bank accounts, Barah said.
He added that the original account holders become liable for allowing their bank accounts to be used in Cyber Crime and they become an accused in Cyber crime-related cases and the Police may take legal action against such Account holders.
It has come to light that they took a flat in Hatigaon area on rent and were running their criminal activities from there.
The flat was searched by police which led to the recovery of 44 chequebooks of various bank accounts in the name of different account holders, 12 bank passbooks of different account holders, 49 Debit/ATM cards of various account holders, 7 foreign currency of UAE, and Thailand, 7 phone pay UPI scanners, 17 SIM Cards of different mobile service providers, 3 personnel diaries containing details of various transactions, one international driving permit In the name of Anvesh Chandra, 7 mobile handsets, one passport in the name of the arrested accused Anvesh Chandra, one Alto car belonging to Anvesh Chandra has also been recovered from the parking lot.
The Police commissioner said a total of 606 complaints have been reported at Cyber PS, Panbazar from September 2023 till date involving an amount of Rs 35. 51 crore. To date, the police recovered Rs 2.55 crore.
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