BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha Crime Branch on Friday night arrested three Jharkhand youths wanted in over 100 cyber crimes across the country.
On a tip off, the investigators raided a house at Rasulgarh and nabbed Pradhum Kumar Mandal (20), Krishna Kumar Mandal (19), both natives of Giridih district, and Chetlal Mandal (28) of Dhanbad district. The trio along with their associates had contacted more than 4.38 lakh people spanning across the country including Odisha.
Addl DGP (Crime Branch) Sanjeeb Panda said tha they were wanted in at least 171 incidents of cyber crime in 20 states. During interrogation, the accused admitted to have made telephonic calls to people in various parts of the country by impersonating as bank officials. They used to call the victims on the pretext of updating their KYC and collect their personal details. The accused then transferred the victims’ money into their accounts.
The Crime Branch seized 11 mobile phones including an iPhone, two laptops, a tablet, two debit cards and some other incriminating articles from them.
Panda said that the accused were using 33 different mobile phone numbers of Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal circles to defraud the victims. They used pre-activated SIM cards to commit the crimes and purchased gift vouchers from the fraudulently obtained money. They were staying on rent in the Capital city since December 28 last year. Further investigation is on.