PATIALA: The ongoing investigations into the case of cybercriminals duping Patiala MP Preneet Kaur of Rs 23 lakh have revealed that the criminals had managed to extract more than Rs 5 crore from a large number of people in the month of July alone.

According to Patiala senior superintendent of police (SSP) MS Sidhu cyber teams investigating the racket found that the criminals were exploiting the loopholes to open online bank accounts in Fino Payments Bank. “We have so far identified 215 fake accounts out of which 200 were used for the monetary transactions," he said.

These accounts were opened by Ashraf Ali, who is already in police custody, using the biometrics of unsuspecting migrant labourers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh , who would visit him for making changes in their Aadhaar cards and other related matters.

Sidhu said it has come to light that the cybercriminals, who were operating from the forest of Jamtara in Jharkhand district, used to procure SIM cards from a number of states outside Punjab and would then send these to Ashraf Ali, who was operating from Mandi Gobindgarh . These SIM cards were used to open the bank accounts with the Fino Payments Bank.

During investigation, it has come to light that Ashraf Ali had been appointed merchant cum distributor of the Fino Payments Bank. Ashish Kumar a manager of said bank has been arrested. Ashish had provided Ali with bank kits which were used by him open fake bank accounts. Instead of appending the PAN card he completed the bank formalities with Form 60.

After opening these accounts, he would send the SIM cards and the bank kits to the cyber operators in Jamtara from where they would use these SIM cards to dupe people.

It has been found that around 215 new bank accounts were opened by Ashraf Ali in the month of July and out of these 200 were used for transactions. A sum of Rs 5.33 crore was deposited in these accounts out of which Rs 5.25 crore was withdrawn using the banks ATMs or by making online purchases or depositing various utility bills. The Patiala police have found Rs 7.73 lakh in these accounts.

Sidhu said during investigations, evidence pointed out at connivance of Ashish Kumar in this module following which he has been placed under arrest along with Ashraf Ali. The police had earlier arrested Attaullah Ansari from the forest of Jamtara.

He said they would be sending a detailed report to the director general of police pointing out how these cybercriminals were exploiting the online banking system so that the matter can be taken up with the higher authorities.

He said the individuals in whose name these bank accounts were opened were not even aware that their biometrics had been used for the said purpose.

