Ranchi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday night formally registered three separate FIRs against three cyber criminals and their associates from Jamtara and Deoghar districts who had accumulated properties worth over Rs 3 crore by swindling people by posing as bank and Sebi officials in the last five years.

ED had taken up the probe on Jharkhand police's request in April this year. This is the first cyber fraud case in the state whose investigation was taken up by a premier agency of the country.

FIRs have been lodged against Pradeep Kumar Mandal, Yugal Mandal, Santosh and their associates.

Pradeep and Yugal are natives of Mirga and Pabya villages under Narainpur police station in Jamtara district, while Santosh is a resident of Chhatapathar village under Madhupur police station in Deoghar district.

"So far, Jharkhand police have provided us a copy of the FIRs and charge sheets filed against the accused. However, there is no elaboration on the frauds committed by them except that they posed as bank officials and contacted gullible people to obtain their bank account and ATM card details and siphoned off money from their accounts. Jharkhand police informed us that Pradeep, Yugal and Santosh amassed properties worth Rs 1 crore, Rs 99 lakh and Rs 50 lakh, respectively. It is a scheduled offence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002," a senior official of the Enforcement Directorate said.

ED has lodged FIRs against the trio and their aides under various sections of PMLA act besides Section 419 (cheating by impersonation) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the IPC.

"Both Pradeep and Yugal have been active for the past five years. The first case against Pradeep was lodged in 2015. He was arrested but got out on bail. He constructed five palatial houses in Jamtara through the ill-gotten money. Pradeep claims that he runs a meat shop, but there is a huge mismatch between his property and source of income," Jamtara SP Jaya Roy said.

Yugal's name was revealed by a group of five cyber criminals who were arrested in December last year.

"Yugal is absconding. During the investigation of his assets, we found that he owns a commercial cum residential complex at Sahana locality in the heart of the town. We immediately stopped its construction and sealed the premises," DSP (cyber) of Jamtara cyber police station Sumit Kumar said.

Police also seized swanky four-wheelers from his residence. Investigations revealed that Yugal had laundered money in real estate and transport business.

"We found details of various bank accounts to which huge amounts were transferred from other accounts," the DSP said.

Santosh, who is absconding, is also a murder accused.

"In November last year, we raided his house in connection with a cyber fraud case and recovered Rs 15.24 lakh cash besides costly electrical and electronic equipment. His father Munilal Mahto confirmed that Santosh was involved in cyber fraud for the past five years," Deoghar SP Narendra Kumar Singh said.

Binod Kumar Singh, who was posted as Madhupur OC when the crackdown began, said the district administration had estimated Santosh's property's worth at Rs 50 lakh.

Narainpur and Karmatand localities in Jamtara and Madhupur in Deoghar have earned notoriety as the hub of cyber criminals where police of almost all states visit to investigate cyber fraud cases.

One Sitaram Mandal of Karmatand, who was arrested in 2016, had siphoned off Rs 5 lakh from the bank account of Amitabh Bachchan.