In a significant crackdown on cyber crime, the police crime branch, in collaboration with the Ramnagariya police station, arrested five individuals on Saturday for allegedly opening bank accounts using fake documents to facilitate the transfer of ill-gotten money from cyber fraud. The accused had been depositing money obtained through cyber fraud, online gaming, and betting into these accounts.
This joint operation led to the discovery of 733 fraudulent accounts. Reports indicate that gang members were paid between Rs 5,000 and Rs 20,000 for each account they opened, operating from a rented apartment in Ramnagariya.
ADG of Crime Dinesh M.N. identified the arrested individuals as Yogi Krishna Soni, Sandeep Bagda, Rajendra Kumar Meena and his brother Suresh Kumar Meena, along with Lakshya Jain. Investigations revealed that Soni and Bagda were offering to open fake bank accounts for Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000 each. Meena and his brother managed to open 87 such accounts, which were then handed over to Soni and Bagda for operation.
Police stated that the arrested men confessed to using the accounts for illegal activities, including online betting, cyber fraud, and transactions involving illegal money.
Authorities seized numerous items during the operation, including 18 bank account opening applications, five cheque books, four biometric machines, 34 company seals, seven Aadhar cards, one bank seal, three lined registers, a small diary, and 32 credit and debit cards from Meena and his brother. A laptop recovered from Jain contained details of these accounts and transactions.
Investigations revealed that Meena and his brother had lured underprivileged individuals to sign applications for bank accounts. They even created PAN cards for these individuals, which were delivered to their addresses, while collecting Aadhar cards to verify the account holders’ locations.