Hyderabad:The Hyderabad Cybercrime Police have busted an inter-state cyberfraud racket and arrested 52 people, including four bank officials, who were accused in 33 cases, involving Rs 88.32 crore.
During the operation, police seized Rs 47.90 lakh in cash, cryptocurrency worth Rs 40 lakh, 39 ATM cards, 17 passbooks and 54 chequebooks from them. This apart, authorities have also frozen transactions worth Rs 2.87 crore in their bank accounts.
Hyderabad Police Commissioner CV Anand said mule accounts were opened in exchange of commissions and accused helped fraudsters launder money. A special police operation was conducted across Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, and Hyderabad, leading to their arrests, Anand said.
The accused bank officials have been identified as Shubham Kumar Jha, a deputy manager of RBL Bank, Bengaluru, Haroon Rashid and R Mohan, vice presidents of Axis Bank, Malleshwaram branch and K Srinivasa Rao, sales manager of Kotak Mahindra Bank, Hyderabad JNTU branch,
"These officials allegedly opened hundreds of mule bank accounts without proper verification, charging commissions ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 80,000 per account. They provided over 150 bank accounts to cybercriminals. Another accused, Srinivasa Rao, assisted fraudsters in withdrawing huge amounts from these mule accounts, taking a one to five percent commission on transactions," police said.
Mohammed Ismail, identified as the mastermind behind the racket, operated from Dubai. Two key accused, Reddy Praveen of West Godavari and Maganti Jayaram of Machilipatnam, allegedly helped in opening mule accounts. Mohammed Junaid of Hyderabad, converted the money obtained through fraud into cryptocurrency.
Two others, Harpal Singh and Syed Ayubbhai, natives of Gujarat, made WhatsApp, Skype and internet calls impersonating government agencies, threatening victims with fake allegations of money laundering, drug trafficking and terrorism to extort money. They have a total of 17 cases registered against them across the country.
With the arrests of key players, bank officials and middlemen, authorities are tightening the noose on cybercriminals misusing banking channels. Further investigations are underway to trace additional links and financial transactions, police said.
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