On the very first day of the New Year, the cyber crime branch arrested four individuals involved in a cyber fraud case where Rs 6.95 lakh was siphoned from a pensioner’s bank account. The accused had arranged bank accounts to facilitate the fraud, which came to light after a complaint was filed by the victim.
Police revealed that over the last 20 days, the bank account used in the scam had transactions worth more than Rs 50 lakh. Additional DCP Shailendra Singh Chauhan said the victim received a call from fraudsters posing as treasury office staff, who falsely claimed that the pension was on hold and required an update to the life certificate to resume payments.
Taking advantage of this pretext, the cyber conmen managed to withdraw nearly Rs 7 lakh from the victim’s account. The cyber crime branch traced the fraudulent account and apprehended four suspects: Durgesh Kumar Tandon (19), Rahul Sonwane (20), Karan Sonwane (19), and Vishwanath Khunte (24), all residents of Sakti district in Chhattisgarh.
Interrogation revealed that Durgesh, Karan, and Rahul opened bank accounts and sold them to middleman Vishwanath Khunte, who then sold them to cyber gangs. These gangs used the accounts to execute scams by calling and deceiving victims. Vishwanath, an intermediate graduate, acted as an agent providing bank accounts, while the others, who dropped out in Class 8, worked odd jobs for a living.
