Delhi Police nabs two cyber fraudsters using bank accounts of labourers to hide money

New Delhi, May 27 (PTI) Two men who allegedly used the bank accounts of some Jharkhand-based labourers to launder and conceal cyber fraud proceeds were apprehended from Ladakh’s Sarchu, an official said on Tuesday.
     The accused, identified as Imran Ansari (43) and Mansoor Ansari (55), both natives of Jharkhand, targeted daily wage labourers in the state and opened their accounts and used them to funnel stolen funds, he said.
     They frequently moved to remote and jurisdictionally complex locations such as Ladakh to avoid detection, the official added.
     “They also disclosed the names of two more alleged masterminds, also from Jharkhand, who are currently being tracked,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Harsh Indora said.
     The matter came to light after a case was registered on September 2, 2024 by a woman who reported an unauthorised deduction of Rs 69,953 from her bank account. The complainant alleged she had been duped by a person posing as a representative of an online coaching institute, he said.
     During the investigation, technical surveillance and financial trail analysis revealed that the stolen amount had been transferred to several bank accounts located in remote villages of Dumka and Godda districts in Jharkhand. The accounts were found to be in the names of labourers working on infrastructure projects, the DCP said.
     "These labourers’ bank accounts were opened under the supervision of site contractors, who retained the ATM cards and passbooks. These were later misused for fraudulent transactions," the officer said.
     The police initially apprehended two individuals, Ramjeet and Badri Rai, from Godda and Dumka districts, whose accounts had received the money.
    On further interrogation, they revealed that their accounts had been opened and misused by the main accused, Imran and Mansoor Ansari.
     The officer added that police tracked the two suspects to Sarchu after learning that they had fled Jharkhand to evade arrest. Police pursued the suspects through the Manali-Rohtang-Keylong route and managed to apprehend them from the oxygen-deprived region of Sarchu, he said.
     "Further investigation is underway to dismantle the entire network,” the DCP said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)