Motijheel, Uttar Pradesh: Police arrested eight individuals near Guru Gobind Singh Dwar, close to Motijheel Ground, on Sunday, for their involvement in a large-scale Aadhaar-based bank fraud.
The suspects allegedly exploited poor and needy individuals by offering Rs2,000 in exchange for their Aadhaar details, which were then used to open multiple bank accounts. These accounts were later used to deposit and withdraw money from cyber fraud operations, making the original account holders appear complicit in the eyes of law enforcement.
The arrested have been identified as:
Mohammad Salman (Nihalpur, Prayagraj)
Mohd. Imran (Pan Dariba)
Arun Singh (Phaphamau)
Qasim Ali (Sarvodaya Nagar)
Om Rajwar (Dhanbad, Jharkhand)
Piyush Singh (Mohammadabad, Mau)
Pisora Singh (Ambala)
Rajat Kumar Verma (Utraula, Balrampur)
Inspector Surya Bali Pandey of Swaroop Nagar Police Station said that the arrests followed a tip-off received during an early morning vehicle check. A white car with suspects was intercepted, and during the search, police recovered:
0 mobiles,
11 SIM cards,
3 Aadhaar cards,
4 Driving Licenses,
2 Voter ID cards,
2 PAN cards,
15 Debit cards,
1 Credit card,
7 Bank passbooks, and
15 Cheque books.
Upon interrogation, the gang admitted to running a cyber fraud syndicate. They would retain the passbooks, cheque books, and debit cards of the bank accounts they opened using fake Aadhaar details. Fraudulent money from cyber crimes was funneled through these accounts and withdrawn using the gang’s controlled debit cards.
Police also seized a car used by the group, registered to Arun Singh’s friend Manoj Yadav of Prayagraj. One of the arrested, Rajat, disclosed that some of the bank documents were intended for Krishna Mohan Srivastava, a hotel owner from Gonda, who allegedly helped facilitate the laundering of scam funds.
Initial checks of the seized passbooks revealed that 33 cyber fraud cases linked to these bank accounts have been registered on the National Cyber Crime Portal, with cases spanning West Bengal, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana, Karnataka, and Chhattisgarh.
The investigation is ongoing, with more links and beneficiaries expected to emerge.
