New Delhi, Jul 16 (PTI) The CBI on Wednesday arrested three accused in connection with the mule bank account network busted by it last month, officials said.
The arrests were made during an operation conducted by the agency in seven states under ongoing Operation Chakra-V to combat cybercrime and digital arrest scams, they said.
Armed with fresh inputs at the hideouts of mule account operators, the CBI teams swooped down at multiple locations in Delhi, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan on Wednesday during which “voluminous incriminating evidence including mobile phones, bank account opening documents, transaction records and KYC papers” were seized.
The searches were aimed at “dismantling the infrastructure of cybercrime syndicates by identifying and neutralizing mule accounts” that help in washing of proceeds of crimes.
The arrested individuals facilitated the operation, CBI’s spokesperson said in a statement.
“The operation has also led to the arrest of 03 individuals for their active role in facilitating and operating mule bank accounts used to channel and conceal proceeds of various cyber frauds,” the spokesperson said.
The CBI had busted a country wide network of mule accounts booking 37 accused persons with over under Indian Penal Code Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita and the Prevention of Corruption Act with over 8.5 lakh mule accounts under scanner.
“These individuals operating as mule account holders and middlemen/ agents and bank employees knowingly colluded with cybercriminals to open and operate mule accounts used for receiving, transferring and withdrawing proceeds of cyber frauds. Earlier, the CBI had conducted searched on June 26 and June 27 at 40 locations across various States and arrested 10 accused persons for similar offences,” a statement said.
The bank accounts were used to transfer the proceeds of crimes generated through digital arrest scams, impersonation, fraudulent advertisements, investment frauds and other related cyber offences.
The spokesperson said the central agency has adopted a “strategic approach” in the fight against cybercrime, by hitting at the key pillars of the cybercrime infrastructure.
“The first pillar is the financial infrastructure, involving mule accounts, unauthorized payment gateways and the wider fintech ecosystem misused by cybercriminals,” the spokesperson said.
The second pillar is the telecom/ communication infrastructure involving mule SIM cards, point-of-sale (PoS) agents facilitating illegal SIM activations and networks supplying such SIM cards, the statement said.
The third pillar is the human resource network which consists of organized syndicates engaged in the recruitment and exploitation of people for executing cybercrimes, otherwise what is now known as “cyber slavery” mostly operating outside India. PTI ABS ZMN
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