Jamshedpur police have arrested two young men who allegedly siphoned off over Rs 68 lakh from people’s bank accounts by fraudulent means during the past two years.
Pawan Kumar (22) and Chandan Kumar (20), nabbed by cops on Thursday, are brothers and residents of Hazaribagh district. This is the first time cyber criminals have been arrested from this area in Jharkhand.
Upendra Mandal, inspector, cyber thana Bistupur, informed that the brothers withdrew Rs 62,500 from the account of one Ajay Ojha, a resident of Anandnagar in Golmuri locality in the year 2018.
"Ojha holds an account with the State Bank of India. One of the accused asked for his Aadhar card number, claiming to be a SBI manager. He was told that the Aadhar number needs to be linked to his bank account, failing which his ATM card would become invalid. Ojha shared his Aadhar and bank account number with the caller thereafter. A few days later he discovered Rs 62,500 missing from his account," Mandal told The Telegraph Online.
Pawan Kumar (22) nabbed by cops on Thursday. Animesh Sengupta
A case was registered against unknown criminals on the basis of an FIR lodged by Ojha and an investigation was launched. It took two years for the police to finally track down the perpetrators.
"On going through their cell phones, we found several numbers of bank account holders. Similarly, their laptop revealed information related to amounts withdrawn from bank customers and the names of about eight banks from where the accused had transferred money. The brothers siphoned money from other accounts and deposited it in their own. After a thorough investigation and interrogation of the two, we finally arrested them in Hazaribag on Wednesday night and brought them to Jamshedpur on Thursday," the cyber thana inspector further informed.
Rs1 lakh in cash has been seized during the arrest, alongside cell phones and laptops.
The inspector also said that the brothers adopted that same method they applied in Ojha’s case to make the transfers, targeting mostly SBI account holders..
Mandla informed that such gangs of cyber criminals used to operate mainly from districts like Jamtara and Deoghar.
The two arrested were transferred to Ghaghidih Central Jail after producing them before a judicial magistrate in the evening.
