Bhubaneswar, June 28 (IANS) The Commissionerate Police on Sunday arrested three persons from Assam on charges of duping a 64-year-old Bhubaneswar resident of his hard-earned savings by luring him into clicking a fake link that appeared to have been sent by a nationalised bank.

The arrested accused were identified as Harun Rashid (29) of Rupahihat in Nagaon district, and Junaidur Islam (22) and Ejajul Hoque (23) of Laharighat in Morigaon district, all in Assam.

The accused cyber fraudsters were arrested in connection with a case (206/25) registered at the Cyber Crime and Economic Offence (CC & EO) Police Station, Bhubaneswar, following allegations made by Bulu Dash of Trinath Bazar in Bhubaneswar.

Dash, a retired bank employee, alleged in his complaint, filed on November 5, 2025, that he received a call from the accused fraudsters, who offered to help him update his Life Certificate for pension disbursal, for which he had applied.

He later received a message on November 3, 2025, containing a fraudulent link purportedly sent by UCO Bank for updating his Life Certificate for pension.

“After opening the link and submitting the required details as asked by the fraudsters, he received multiple OTPs. Subsequently, he discovered that Rs 8,50,000 had been fraudulently debited from his bank account through unauthorised online transactions,” a senior police official said.

After realising that he had fallen prey to the cyber fraud, he reported the matter to the CC & EO Police Station in Bhubaneswar. Through technical analysis, banking records and KYC details, police detected the involvement of an organised interstate cyber fraud syndicate engaged in procuring mule bank accounts and SIM cards for routing the proceeds of crime.

The investigation revealed that the arrested accused are linked to Kalim Ansari, a key Jamtara-based cyber fraud operator wanted in another cyber fraud case registered at the CC & EO Police Station.

Accused Rashid, a pharmacist, and his associate Parvez Alam Choudhary, also a pharmacist, allegedly opened bank accounts and procured SIM cards in different names before handing them over to the Jamtara-based mastermind, Ansari.

Meanwhile, Hoque recruited mule bank account holders in Morigaon and worked with Ashraful, who allegedly controls the Assam network for procuring and supplying mule bank accounts.

Efforts are on to arrest the remaining accused, including Ansari.

–IANS

gyan/pgh