Police: 11 held for opening bank accounts using fake Aadhaar cards to commit cyber crimes

Based on the information received by Inspector NB Nakum, a police team raided the premises and arrested nine of the total 11 accused.

During investigation, the police found out that one of the accused, Suresh Jagdish Bishnoi, was leading this operation.

All the accused belong to Rajasthan’s Jodhpur.

A statement from the Cyber   Crime Police Thursday stated that the “employees” allegedly revealed that they would go to different branches of multiple banks, open up accounts and hand over their account details to Bishnoi and another person named Sunil Dhirani, who was based in Jodhpur.

The accused used to submit fake Aadhaar cards while opening up their bank accounts, said the statement.

During the probe it was found that several Aadhaar cards had the same phone number but different addresses. The accused had, using the phone number, allegedly received OTP from UIDAI and changed the original address of Rajasthan to those in Chandkheda (Ahmedabad), Morbi and Rajkot on the said Aadhaar cards, according to the statement.

During the raid, the police seized 12 mobile phones, 21 identity documents (Aadhaar cards, PAN cards and cheque book), 10 bank passbooks, 43 ATM debit cards and 15 SIM cards, said DCP (Cyber Crime) Lavina Sinha.

Further interrogation revealed that 109 complaints were filed on the National Cyber Reporting Platform (NCRP) against the accounts opened by them in 21 states, out of which four complaints were registered from Gujarat. The accused had opened bank accounts across 26 branches, said the police.

The nine accused arrested during the raid include Suresh Jagdish Bishnoi (19), Anil Ugrasen Bishnoi (20), Kailash Khamoram Bishnoi (43), Hukamram Bhagwanram Bishnoi (19), Manish Hajariram Bishnoi (20), Vikas Punaram Bishnoi (18), Rakesh Sukhram Bishnoi (22), Rakesh Sahiram Bishnoi (22) and Mankul Sahiram Bishnoi (25).

Notably, when accused Rakesh Sahiram Bishnoi was searched, the police found a pistol with seven live cartridges from his person.

Based on the inputs given by the nine accused, two more accused, Lalit Shankarlal Bishnoi and Kuldeep Hanumanram Kichar, were arrested from Rajasthan. The alleged leader of the gang, Sunil Dhirani, remains absconding, said the police.

A case has been registered against all the accused in the cybercrime police station under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Sections 318(4) (cheating), 316(2) (criminal breach of trust), 61(2)(a) (criminal conspiracy), 54 (abettor present) and Sections 66(c), 66(d) of the IT Act.