Bengaluru, Three men have been arrested in connection with an alleged investment fraud racket involved in procuring mule bank accounts and facilitating the transfer of cyber-fraud proceeds through K-based applications, police said on Monday.
The accused have been identified as Amit Mishra, a resident of East Singhbhum district in Jharkhand, and Bengaluru residents Tausif Ahmed and Parashuram Sadanand Kannannavar alias Pavan Kumar, they said.
The arrests followed a complaint lodged on April 29, 2026 by a Bengaluru resident, who alleged that he received a link through WhatsApp. After clicking on it, unknown persons added him to a WhatsApp group named "EL Investment Strategies Discussion," police said.
According to the complaint, messages regarding investment in trading were posted in the group every day between 7 pm and 8.30 pm. The complainant was subsequently asked to open a demat account and initially invested ₹50,000.
The accused later provided various bank account details and allegedly induced the complainant to invest a total of ₹93.58 lakh in instalments.
However, they neither provided any returns nor refunded the invested amount, he alleged.
{{/usCountry}}However, they neither provided any returns nor refunded the invested amount, he alleged.
{{/usCountry}}Based on the complaint, a case was registered under relevant sections of the IT Act and Section 318 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita , police said.
During the investigation, the accused were apprehended at a hotel in Kasavanahalli in Bengaluru based on technical information, they said.
According to a police statement, the investigation revealed that the accused procured current, corporate and trust bank accounts, net banking credentials and linked SIM cards from various persons by offering them commissions.
The account holders were accommodated in hotels, where an application 'ZNPAY' and SMS-forwarding malicious Ks were installed. The banking OTPs and SMS messages received on the linked SIM cards were then forwarded to cyber fraudsters, enabling them to remotely operate the bank accounts and transfer cyber-fraud proceeds, it said.
In return, the accused, bank account suppliers and other intermediaries allegedly received commissions, police said.
Six mobile phones seized from the accused were examined, following which it was found that they had procured more than 507 mule bank accounts from various persons, they said.
Police said that further examination also revealed that the accused had used more than 51 K files to transfer cyber-fraud money.
It was also found that cyber-fraud cases had been registered against these bank accounts in Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka and several other states.
As per the statements of the accused, around ₹13 lakh of cyber-fraud proceeds were transferred through one bank account, while more than ₹38 lakh was transferred through another bank account, police said.
"The investigation revealed that the accused exchanged bank account details required for transferring cyber-fraud money with intermediaries through WhatsApp and Telegram and shared them with key persons allegedly involved in the network," it said.
The accused allegedly used Binance wallets to receive the proceeds of the crime and the Botim app for communication among themselves, police said.
During the digital investigation, technical details relating to Telegram and WhatsApp accounts used by the accused and other absconding cyber fraudsters were identified, they said.
"Preliminary technical and IP geolocation analysis of the Telegram and WhatsApp IP information indicated network/IP locations associated with Kolkata, Hong Kong and California in the US. Further verification is being carried out using records from the concerned service providers and other technical evidence," the police said in its statement.
The available technical information indicates the possibility that the cyber-fraud network may not be confined to India and could also be using foreign IP or network infrastructure, they said.
Based on information obtained from WhatsApp, Telegram and email, efforts are underway to identify the intermediaries who supplied the mule bank accounts to the accused and other key persons allegedly involved in the operation, they said, adding that further investigation is underway.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.