Lucknow: Rae Bareli Police on Sunday arrested eight members of a gang involved in routing money obtained through cyber fraud by opening fake firms and bank accounts in the names of other people.The arrests were made jointly by Kotwali Nagar Police and the Cyber Crime Police near Rajghat turn on the directions of SP Ravi Kumar.Those arrested include Anand Mishra of Katra in Banda, Prabhakar Srivastava of Rae Bareli, Saeed Mohammad Azam of Alinagar, Mohammad Akram of Satyanagar and four residents of Indore — Akash Gaur, Jatin Sen, Bablu Hirwe and Surendra Singh.Police said material used in the alleged financial racket was recovered from the accused, including mobile phones, bank cheques, ATM cards and other documents.During interrogation, the accused told police that the gang registered fake firms in the names of unsuspecting individuals. They subsequently obtained GST registrations and opened bank accounts in the names of these firms.According to police, money obtained through cyber fraud was deposited into these accounts and then transferred through multiple bank accounts to obscure the trail. The gang members later withdrew the money through ATMs and distributed the proceeds among themselves.Police said Aadhaar, PAN and other identity documents were used to open the fake firms and accounts.Among the items recovered were 16 Central Bank of India cheques, 56 Utkarsh Small Finance Bank cheques, ATM cards, a filled-out Indian Bank account-opening form and 34 signed and stamped bank cheques, besides documents and banking material linked to several other banks.Police said Mohammad Akram, a gym operator from Satyanagar, is being insterrogated. His gym is being searched and police are collecting information about people who visited the facility.City CO Ashish Nigam said the accused were involved in opening fake firms and bank accounts to facilitate transactions of cyber fraud proceeds before withdrawing and distributing the money.Police are now investigating the gang’s wider network and identifying others involved in the racket.
