CUTTACK: The Cyber Crime and Economic Offences police have arrested three more Rourkela natives for their alleged involvement in duping over Rs 13 lakh from a man through a telegram-based cryptocurrency fraud.
The accused were identified as Abinash Ojha (35) of Basanti Colony, Jagan Sahoo (24) of Bandhamunda and Pratik Chaurasia alias Sidharth (21) of Panposh. The trio was brought to Cuttack on Monday for being produced in court. One of their associates, Arurag Pattnaik was arrested on September 6 in this connection.
Abinash, who worked with Paytm and NSDL, was allegedly involved in collecting documents from people, opening bank accounts and selling those accounts to other fraudsters while Jagan, an employee of Airtel and Jio payment banks had been collecting pre-activated SIM cards and bank account kits and selling those in Mumbai, Delhi, Gujarat and Rajasthan. Similarly, Pratik, who worked as an Airtel SIM card seller, provided pre-activated SIMs to Abinash and Jagan.
Police began investigation basing on the complaint of Subas Chandra Behera of Jagatpur who alleged that one Nisha Singh used to send links to his Telegram channel to invest and provide Google reviews on a cryptocurrency platform on the promise of being provided double money. Believing her, he transferred over Rs 13 lakh in different phases in the month of May. However, when he realised it was a scam, he lodged a police complaint.
Basing on the data provided by the banks and the telecom authority, the cyber police and Cuttack UPD initiated process to track the fraudsters. “After a thorough analysis of bank transactions, CDR, SDR and IPDR of the suspected numbers, it was ascertained that the accused were residents of Rourkela and its nearby areas,” said a senior police officer.
Police have frozen 39 bank accounts having over Rs 2 lakh.