Kanpur: Cyber crime police station team on Friday arrested five accused in a cyber fraud case for posing as police officials and duping a retired assistant commissioner of Rs 57 lakh by falsely accusing him of funding the Pulwama terror attack.According to police, the victim, Bhairav Prasad Pandey, a resident of Rambagh, received a call on April 10, in which the fraudsters accused him of making a transaction of Rs 70 lakh to the main suspect in the Pulwama terror attack.Threatening the family with arrest and other dire consequences, the fraudsters put the entire family under a digital arrest.The accused later forced the victim to transfer Rs 57 lakh in multiple transactions to various accounts.The victim finally registered a police complaint on April 21.Police commissioner Raghuveer Lal said, “Three days ago, Bhairav Prasad filed a case related to digital arrest. He was defrauded of approximately Rs 57 lakh. After receiving the complaint, our team began the investigation and traced two bank accounts, based on which five people have been arrested.The five arrested are: Jai Prakash, a resident of Jawahar Nagar; Shubhankar Singh, a resident of Nirala Nagar; Vikram Singh, a resident of Kidwai Nagar, Kanpur; Vinay Pratap Singh, a resident of Raipurwa; and Raju Thakur, a resident of Veermau, Jharkhand.From the accused, the SIM card of the number used to make the call, bank account documents, and an Ertiga car were recovered.Police also said the main accused is a CRPF constable, Dawood Ansari, from West Bengal, stationed in Raurkela, Odisha. His network is reported to be linked to cyber fraudsters in Cambodia, and one of the accused is also a from Bokaro, Lal said.“Our team has contacted the CISF headquarters for his interrogation. He will soon be taken into custody for questioning. This cyber fraud network spans across five states, and international connections have also emerged. Mobile phones, a vehicle, and other items have been recovered from the accused,” police commissioner said.The cyber fraudsters installed an app on Bhairav Prasad’s mobile, through which they monitored his every activity. He was also instructed not to meet anyone or share his number with anyone. Even the housemaid was instructed not to come.”
