Bank accounts opened in the name of Guwahati residents were sold in Dubai, the crime branch's cyber cell has found out as investigations continue into the cybercrime nexus in the city. On Friday night, the sleuths carried out searches at the flat of one of the accused.
Two men were held by the cyber police on Friday in simultaneous raids at Uzan Bazar and Beltola uncovering the cybercrime nexus. The duo — Babu Das and Anvesh Chand — is accused of supplying cyber fraudsters with bank accounts opened unscrupulously.
Based on the arrests, the sleuths searched the rented Bhetapara apartment of one of the accused, Anvesh Chand, last night. The luxurious apartment reportedly cost Rs 80,000 per month. Officials found hundreds of banknotes of Dubai's currency Dirham, over 150 SIM cards, and identities of people conned to open bank accounts.
However, two other suspects in the case who resided in the same apartment where the raid was underway, managed to flee from the scene. The were under the radar of the cyber cell as accomplices to the two arrested accused.
Apart from that, the preliminary investigations has also revealed that the bank accounts that were opened fraudulently, were being sold as far as in Dubai. Both Babu Das and Anvesh Chand collected Rs 50,000 for every bank account they sold, the cyber cell has informed.
As per the officials on Friday, the duo tricked small business owners among others across Guwahati into accessing their details for small amounts of money using which they opened bank accounts in their name. The business owners would never know about the existing bank accounts in their names.
Meanwhile, the accused individuals would sell these bank accounts to an international gang of cyber criminals based in Delhi. The gang would then sell these accounts in Dubai. The accounts would be used by the criminals to park money, mostly stolen from victims of cyber fraud. This use of proxy bank accounts essentially erased any links that authorities could establish with the criminals.
When courted by reporters outside the police station, they were silent. They have been processed for further legal action. The police have kept the door open for more arrests as investigations continue into the case.
