5 cyber frauds from Jaipur, Thane arrested

MUMBAI: The Vakola police on Saturday arrested five people from Rajasthan and Thane who were found to be involved in several cyber fraud cases across the country.

The arrested accused were identified as Rajkaran Tanwar, 19, Karan Segar, 19, Mohammad Ansari. 27, Miraj Akram, 24, and Fujeel Ahmed Ansari, 21. Tanwar and Segar are residents of Jaipur, Rajasthan, while the rest are residents of Bhiwandi in Thane.

The latest case that led to their arrests was registered in January after a 26-year-old resident of Santacruz (East) lost ₹3.4 lakh in a task-based fake job scam. “During investigation, we checked bank account transactions and found the fraud’s account was based in Rajasthan. We sent a police team there and zeroed in on Tanwar and Segar, who we learnt were tasked with transferring funds from one account to another, and then later convert it into cryptocurrency,” said police inspector Amar Patil.

The investigation also revealed that Mohammad Ansari, a Bhiwandi resident, was involved and tasked with operating as many as 70 bank accounts that he did not own. During his interrogation, Ansari shared details of the other two accused, and eventually, they were all taken to custody, said police.

Patil said the arrested accused have conspired to dupe several people across the country to the tune of ₹30 crore.

In the last four months, three cyber fraud cases were registered in West, East, and North cyber police stations, where the accused duped their victims of ₹7.27 crore, ₹41 lakh, and ₹14 lakh respectively. In the same time, there were also cases registered with the Pune Cyber and cyber police stations in Bilaspur, Chhatisgarh, where the accused duped victims of ₹22 lakh and ₹48 lakh respectively.

The five accused were produced before court and remanded to police custody till April 28