Mangaluru CEN Police Arrest Six, Including Youths From Andhra And Telangana
According to the police, the case was registered after Mohammed Iqbal from the Bunder area of Mangaluru city complained that his friend Ibrahim had asked him to provide a current account for business purposes.
Mangaluru: The CEN Police have arrested six persons acting as agents to provide mule accounts to cyber fraudsters operating from abroad.
Of the arrested, three are from Andhra Pradesh, two from Telangana, and one from Karnataka.
The arrested are identified as Sheikh Karimulla alias Rasool (27) of Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, Budidinne Vamshi alias Guru (21) of Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, Panditi Kranti Kumar (36) of Hyderabad, Bade Srinivas (38) of Hyderabad, Utpala Santosh Krishna (35) of Nellore, Andhra Pradesh and Ibrahim (35) of Mulki, Karnataka.
According to the police, the case was registered after Mohammed Iqbal from the Bunder area of Mangaluru city complained that his friend Ibrahim had asked him to provide a current account for business purposes. Trusting him, the complainant handed over his bank passbook, ATM card, cheque book, and the Airtel SIM card linked to the account. The account was later misused for fraudulent transactions.
During the investigation, police analysed technical evidence and found that a cyber fraud gang was operating from Hyderabad. A special team was sent there, leading to the arrest of five accused in Hyderabad and one in Mangaluru. All the accused are being produced before the court.
Police said the gang used social media platforms to post attractive advertisements offering bank account holders a commission of 4 to 6 per cent. They collected personal and banking details from willing account holders, obtained OTPs, and forwarded them to cyber fraudsters based abroad.
On one of the bank accounts involved in the case registered at the Cyber Crime Police Station, about five complaints were reported across the country on the NCRP Portal.
Searches conducted on the seized mobile phones and laptop revealed details of 72 bank accounts allegedly used in fraud. Of these, 30 accounts were linked to more than 272 complaints registered on the NCRP portal across the country. Investigators also found that on a single day — February 26 — the gang had carried out transactions exceeding Rs 2 crore.
The police have seized 18 mobile phones, one laptop, 12 SIM cards, 15 cheque books, 12 bank passbooks, and 18 debit cards from the accused. Officials said further investigation is on.