Assam: Four arrested in mule account scam in Guwahati

Guwahati: The police in Guwahati, Assam cracked a bank account scam (mule account), arresting four key accused and uncovering a modus operandi of cyber-criminals being run over months.

The case, registered as Cyber Police Station in Guwahati revolves around a sophisticated network of fraudsters targeting unsuspecting individuals, mostly from lower economic strata, Commissioner of Police, Diganta Barah said.

The investigation, led the police to a gang of alleged cyber criminals who collected bank accounts from gullible persons, promising them a lump sum amount.

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The accused, Anvesh Chandra, Bablu Das, Chinmoy Chakraborty, and Abinash Mahato, used fake names and mobile numbers to operate the accounts, duping the original account holders.

The police said that during their investigation they recovered a substantial amount of "incriminating" evidence.

The recovered items included 44 chequebooks, 12 bank passbooks, 49 debit/ATM cards, foreign currency from UAE as well as Thailand and seven PhonePe UPI scanners.

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The police further said that along with these, they also seized 17 SIM cards, three personnel diaries with transaction details, one international driving permit, seven mobile handsets, one passport and a car.

The commissioner said the passport and the car (Maruti Suzuki Alto) belonged to Avnesh Chandra.

The investigation was initiated based on a complaint by a victim identified as Rahit Ali of Guwahati.

The accused were later arrested and are currently under interrogation.

Speaking about the scams, the Police Commissioner also alerted people to be aware of other sorts of cybercrime.

He appealed to the general public to be aware of any suspicious scam and report it to the police at the earliest.

He added that in the past one year over Rs 35 crore were duped by cyber criminals in Guwahati from various people.

He also added that informed that of the stolen funds, only Rs 2.5 has been recovered so far.