By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: STF arrested one more accused in the inter-state mule bank account scam case IeSourav Maity, 30 years S/O- Ramesh Chandra Maity of Rampura PO/PS Mohanpur in West Medinapur, West Bengal on 15th January 2024.
He was produced before the court of CJM, Barasat, North 24 Paragana, West Bengal andwas brought to Bhubaneswar after getting 04 days transit remand. He will beproduced before the court of SDJM, Bhubaneswar.
Earlier in this STF PS Case No. 24/2023, U/s 419/ 420/ 465/467/468/471/120(B)/34 IPC r/w. 66 C & 66 D IT Act, 2000, STF had arrested four scammers namely 1) Sk Hapizul , S/o. Sk Jafar Hussain of Olamara , Barhampur PS. RainbanaDist. Balasore at present Rasulgarh , Bhubaneswar, 2) Sk Jahangir S/o. SkJania ofOlamara , Barhampur PS. Rainbana Dist. Balasore, 3) SkJamiruddin S/o. SkJamaluddin of Rampura PS. Mohanpur Dist. West Medinapur, West Bengal and4) Samim Islam S/O-Sadikul Islam, Vill/PO-Gudhia,PS in Murshidabad, WestBengal who were running mule bank Accounts scam.
This racket operates mainly in the tri-junction area of Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal especially in the districts of Balasore, Mayurbhanj, East Midnapore, West Midnapore, East Sighbhoom, West Singhbhoom and Saraikela. This racket was headed by Sk Jamiruddin of West Midnapore, West Bengal. Hehad employed around 10-15 people at the rate of 15000/- per month to open bank accounts. These members visited various interior areas of these district targeting mainly poor villagers/ tribal and persuade/lure them for opening the bank accounts. Villagers were generally offered Rs 2000/- per account for giving their documents and opening the bank accounts.
However the mobile numbers linked with bank accounts were provided by gang members. The rate of 2000/-per account differs depending on the bargaining/ awareness level of the villager. In turn, the gang than sell these bank accounts along with the connected mobile numbers to various Cyber, cyber-financial, sextortion scammers and other criminals based at Kolkata and other parts of India. They also used social media platform like secret WhatsApp group, Facebookpages, Telegram channel to sell the mule bank accounts.
They sold mule bank accounts at the rate of Rs 15-20,000/- per account.So far they have sold around five thousands mule bank accounts at different platforms. It has also come to the notice that the scammers frequently change the bank accounts. Generally they abandon the bank accounts once it reaches a transaction of Rs one Lakh. Sometimes the accounts get frozen even before that by concerned banks on the request of police/ Law enforcement agencies.
