New Delhi, May 5 (PTI) The Delhi Police has busted an interstate cyber fraud racket involved in online investment and task-based scams with the arrest of five people, including four teenagers, from Uttarakhand’s Udham Singh Nagar, officials said on Tuesday.
The accused were part of a syndicate that supplied mule bank accounts to cyber criminals across the country to route the cheated money and evade detection, they said.
A total fraud amount of Rs 3,40,877 linked to multiple complaints on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) has been established so far, they added.
The arrests were made following a complaint lodged by a resident of New Ashok Nagar, identified as Shashi Ranjan Bharti, who was duped of Rs 1,01,869 in an online investment scam.
According to the police, the complainant was added to a social media group on April 6, where fraudsters, posing as digital marketing professionals, lured him into product-based online tasks and investment schemes by promising high returns. He transferred money in multiple transactions before realising he had been cheated.
During the investigation, officials analysed financial transaction trails, bank records, KYC details and digital footprints, which led them to accounts operated by the accused in Uttarakhand. Police found that Rs 50,000 from the cheated amount was transferred to an account belonging to one of the accused, Raj Bachhar, and later routed through other accounts, including that of Sameer Bachhar, to conceal the trail.
A police team was subsequently dispatched to Uttarakhand, where, after sustained technical surveillance and local intelligence gathering, all five accused were apprehended.
The accused have been identified as Raj Bachhar (18), Sameer Bachhar (21), Rohit Ray (18), Rohit Mistri (18) and Harish Sarkar (18), all residents of Udham Singh Nagar district.
The police said Raj and Sameer Bachhar acted as mule account holders, while the other three accused worked as facilitators, arranging and supplying bank accounts to larger cyber fraud networks. They earned commissions for each account and transaction routed through them.
The syndicate targeted unsuspecting individuals and persuaded them to open or share bank accounts in exchange for monetary benefits. These accounts were then used to receive funds from victims of fake investment platforms, task-based scams and fraudulent trading schemes, with the money layered across multiple channels to avoid detection.
The police have also recovered five mobile phones used in the commission of the crime. Efforts are underway to trace other members of the network, and further investigation is in progress. PTI SSJ SSJ APL APL
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