From partners to perpetrators: Cyber gang's feud ends in kidnapping and arrest

Bhubaneswar, Sep 7 (IANS) The Commissionerate Police on Sunday arrested five cyber fraudsters in connection with two cases, one related to the cyber fraud and the other to kidnapping, Bhubaneswar DCP Jagmohan Meena said.

The accused were identified as Bhagban Sahu,21, of Maitri Vihar area, Chiranjiv Rout (21), Amitarani Rout (50), Akankhya Rout (21), of Chandaka area of Bhubaneswar city and Samir Kumar Bhuvey (35), of Bihar Sharif area in Nalanda district of Bihar.

Speaking to media persons, DCP Meena said that a family from Bhubaneswar who used to open bank accounts in their names and later give the account details to cyber fraudsters outside the state for use as mule accounts in various cyber frauds.

The accused family met the cyber-criminal Samir Kumar at Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh.

“In this particular case, the members of a Bhubaneswar-based family supplied their account details to the cybercriminal from Bihar in exchange for the payment of 1.4 per cent commission. Subsequently, the cyber criminals committed cyber fraud throughout India using the three bank account details supplied by the Bhubaneswar-based family. When their bank accounts were repeatedly freezed due to the detection of lien amount, the bank officials here cautioned the family members. This triggered a dispute between the accused family members and Bihar-based cybercriminal Samir Kumar,” said Meena.

He also revealed that the accused family members- Chiranjiv, Amitarani, Bhagban and Akankhya- hatched a plot and called Samir Kumar to Bhubaneswar on some pretext. When he reached Bhubaneswar, they kidnapped Samir Kumar and demanded a ransom of Rs 25 lakhs from him.

However, the cyber fraudster managed to inform the owner of the hotel where he was staying in Bhubaneswar about his abduction.

Upon getting informed by the hotel owner, the Commissionerate police carried out a raid and arrested Chiranjiv, Amitarani and Akankhya as well as the Bihar-based cyber fraudster Samir Kumar from a slum area in the city.

DCP Meena stated that during interrogation, it came to fore that the accused persons belonged to the same cybercriminal gang.

They met in Prayagraj a few months ago and entered into a deal to supply account details in exchange for a 1.4 per cent commission from the cyber fraud amount.

He further informed that police detected transactions of crores of rupees in three bank accounts belonging to the accused family members.

--IANS

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