E-Paper
Two held in mule account case worth ₹63.93 lakh
According to officials, the fraudsters lured the victim, who is an accountant in a private company, with promises of high returns through online share market investments
The cyber cell of the Pimpri-Chinchwad police have arrested two men for allegedly acting as mule account holders in a cyber fraud case amounting to ₹63.93 lakh.
The accused, who were arrested in the last week, have been identified as Prathmesh Shivaji Bhuse,23, who resides in Lohegaon and is originally from Ahilyanagar, and Sachin Radhakisan More, 34, from Adharsh Nagar, Dighi.
According to officials, the fraudsters lured the victim, who is an accountant in a private company, with promises of high returns through online share market investments. After gaining the victim’s trust, the accused instructed him to transfer money to several bank accounts, which later turned out to be operated by mule account holders. These accounts were then used to siphon off the funds and facilitate withdrawals by cyber criminals.
During the probe, police traced two of these bank accounts to residents of Ahilyanagar. The account holders had knowingly provided their credentials to the fraudsters in exchange for a commission.
Investigators said both accused played a crucial role in laundering the money, making it difficult for authorities to track the original perpetrators.
Pravin Swami, assistant police inspector, said, “More is on record as a criminal and detained earlier by our cyber cell.”
During the investigation, it is revealed that the bank account used in this case has received a total of ₹1,15,85,789 in fraudulent money, and a total of 10 cases have been registered against them.
The arrested individuals are now in police custody, and further investigations are underway to identify the larger network behind the operation.
A case has been filed at cyber police station under sections 318(4), 316(2),3(5) of BNS and sections 66 (C), 66 (D) of the Information Technology Act.
