A chartered accountant (CA) from Siliguri who had recently shifted to Dubai and was allegedly running an investment fraud from there has been arrested with 16 others, police said.

The accused include a private bank official in the Nagerbazar branch who allegedly helped the racketeers open mule accounts.

The CA and six others were arrested at a star hotel in the city, another six at an office in south Calcutta and two others in Bihar, said officers in the state cyber crime wing.

Additional director-general of police, cyber crime, H.K. Kusumakar, said 17 persons were arrested in Calcutta and Muzaffarpur as part of an investigation into a ₹1.13 crore investment fraud reported by a city doctor to the Bidhannangar commissionerate.

The complainant was persuaded to download a fake app from a phishing website replicating the site of a wealth management company. The police said the swindlers would lure people through phishing emails and convince them to invest in “lucrative” schemes.

“The money would be transferred through multiple bank accounts opened across the country using fake documents. So far, we have obtained details of more than 700 mule accounts used by the gang in 1,530 cases reported from 29 states involving a fraud amount of ₹250 crore,” said an officer.