Phulbani: Kandhamal district cyber police have busted a major cyber fraud involving transactions worth Rs 6.27 crore, arresting five persons, including the alleged mastermind, police said Friday.
Ten bank account holders have also been served notices under Section 35 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the police added.
Addressing a press conference at the district police office, Additional Superintendent of Police Ramendra Prasad said the fraud involved mule bank accounts opened in various banks in Phulbani and linked to cybercrime activities operating both in India and abroad.
The arrested persons were identified as Tusharkanti Das of Mayurbhanj district, the alleged mastermind, and Abinash Mohapatra, Kiran Kumar Behera, Gopal Singh and Badal Kumar Swain of Phulbani.
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Police said the Crime Branch CID had alerted the Kandhamal cyber cell about suspicious transactions in multiple bank accounts.
Acting on the input, Kandhamal Superintendent of Police Harish Bisi assigned the investigation to the district cyber team.
During the probe, police found that the accounts were opened in the names of poor and unsuspecting individuals.
Transaction trails and call data led investigators to Das, who was working with a private bank in Bhubaneswar.
Police said Das allegedly lured youths by offering commissions for opening savings and corporate accounts and collected ATM cards, passbooks, net banking details and SIM cards for illegal transactions.
Transactions across 16 accounts in Phulbani were traced to the fraud. All the accounts have been frozen. Further investigation is underway, police said.
