Surat, July 7 (IANS) The Surat Cyber Crime Cell on Tuesday arrested two men from Madhya Pradesh for allegedly supplying a bank account used in a cyber fraud in which a resident was cheated of Rs 24.40 lakh after downloading a fake RTO e-challan APK file that enabled fraudsters to hack the victim’s mobile phone.

The arrests were made in Ujjain following a technical investigation and human intelligence-led operation conducted by a team led by Police Inspector M.C. Nayak, acting on the directions of senior officials.

According to the police, the fraud took place between January 21 and May 25 this year. The complainant was sent a fraudulent digital RTO e-challan application named ‘E-Chalan.apk’.

After downloading the APK file, the victim’s mobile phone was compromised, allowing the accused to transfer Rs 24.40 lakh from the victim’s bank account into three separate bank accounts without the victim’s knowledge.

A case was registered at Surat Cyber Crime Police Station under Sections 318(4), 336(2), 338, 336(3), 340(2), 61(2), 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and Sections 66(C) and 66(D) of the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008.

The accused have been identified as Ritik Bali, 26, a labourer from Badnagar in Ujjain district, and Tinku Parmar, 44, an unemployed resident of the same town.

Police said Ritik Bali arranged for a new UCO Bank account to be opened, obtained the account kit and handed it over to Tinku Parmar in return for a commission of Rs 4,000.

Parmar allegedly paid the commission, collected the account kit and then supplied it to an absconding member of the fraud network after receiving Rs 8,000.

Investigators found that transactions amounting to Rs 7,63,415 were carried out through the UCO Bank account between January 12 and May 31.

Checks on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCCRP) also revealed two cyber fraud complaints registered in Bihar involving the same account, with total losses of Rs 70,500.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber Cell) Bishakha Jain said the investigation established that the money stolen from the Surat complainant had been transferred to a UCO Bank account linked to an account holder in Ujjain.

“Technical analysis revealed that the money had been transferred to a UCO Bank account belonging to an account holder in Ujjain. A team went to Ujjain, where questioning the account holder revealed that he, too, had been deceived. The account holder is a friend of Ritik,” she said.

Jain said further investigation found that the two accused had procured the bank account from the account holder on commission before passing it on to the main fraudsters.

“Using technical investigation and human intelligence, we traced and arrested Ritik Bali and Tinku Parmar from Ujjain. Both accused are in our custody and are being produced before the court. They were associated with the main cyber fraud gang and obtained bank accounts from account holders on commission before supplying them to the principal accused,” she said.

Police have advised the public not to download APK files received from known or unknown persons claiming to be bank applications, customer support services, KYC updates, invitation cards or RTO e-challans without verification, warning that such files can be used to hack mobile phones and facilitate financial fraud.

–IANS

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