Rourkela: Uditnagar police here arrested four key members of an interstate cyberfraud network from Jharkhand on Tuesday for allegedly duping people with a fake PM-KISAN scheme link. Earlier, police had nabbed a youth from Rourkela, who was also allegedly a part of this network operating across Odisha and Jharkhand. They have allegedly duped people of more than Rs 3.5 crore.“This figure is likely to increase multifold. A total of 31 complaints/FIRs have been linked to the accused(s) from all over India, involving more than Rs 47 lakh of frozen amount,” said Rourkela superintendent of police (SP) Nitesh Wadhwani in a press meet.Uditnagar police have seized Rs 24,900 cash, five mobile phones, five ATM cards and an SUV from the key accused.Wadhwani said the local youth, Jyotish Prasad Verma (25), a resident of Uditnagar, had been arrested on Aug 7, when several passbooks and cheque books of different banks in his name, besides several debit cards of different banks had been seized from him.“Investigation revealed a sophisticated modus operandi involving malicious APK files disguised as govt-scheme links (PM-KISAN scheme in the current case), which were used to gain unauthorised access to victims’ mobile phones and UPI accounts. The accused thereafter facilitated fraudulent transactions through compromised UPI accounts, ATM withdrawals and merchant QR codes, followed by layering of the fraud proceeds through multiple bank accounts,” he said.Through field action, sustained interrogation, technical investigation and coordinated follow-up, a police team successfully identified and apprehended key members of the network, identified as Bikash Kumar Manjhi (29), Pradip Kumar (24), Suraj Kumar (24), all from Sarath police station area of Deogarh district in Jharkhand, and Manish Kumar Yadav (26) of Moharpur in the same district.“The investigation is underway to identify the remaining members, ascertain their specific roles, trace the complete money trail, identify the ultimate beneficiaries and recover further proceeds of crime,” said Wadhwani.*
