Rourkela: 9 held for inter-state cyber fraud racket

Rourkela: Rourkela Police in Odisha’s Sundergarh district arrested nine people by busting an inter-state cyber fraud racket involving fake trading apps and Hawala transactions.

The arrested persons have been identified as Kishan Agrawal, Kunal Agarwal, Arjun Singh, Girdhari Singh, Ajay Kumar, Sandeep Kumar Soni, Soumendra Singh Rajput, Abhijit Bharadwaj and Dinesh Kumar Sahu.

Acting on a tip-off, the Cyber Crime & Economic Offenses (CC&EO) Police Station in Rourkela conducted a raid at an apartment in Civil Township and initially detained two persons. Based on their information, they conducted another raid at Basanti Colony and arrested five more suspects.

Further probe led to the arrest of two more operatives from Chhattisgarh’s Raipur, bringing the total arrests to nine.

Police also seized five laptops, 31 mobile phones, 68 SIM cards from various networks, 20 ID proofs, ATM cards, a cheque book, One car and a scooter from their possessions.

Police also froze Rs. 1.41 crore in 23 different bank accounts, and 176 other accounts are currently under verification, said sources.

Know the Modus Operandi:

• The accused were allegedly operating “TradeNow,” a fake trading app that promised high returns on investments. Victims were lured into downloading the app and investing money, which was then routed through mule accounts and Hawala channels, with daily transactions exceeding Rs. 50 lakhs.
• The mastermind, Kishan Agrawal, is believed to be operating the scam from Dubai, UAE.
• According to police, he is involved in similar rackets running across India and other South and West Asian countries. Investigators suspect that Agrawal fled to Dubai to avoid arrest and has been orchestrating the scam remotely.