4 cyber fraudsters arrested in Kurnool

Kurnool: The III-Town police on Sunday arrested four persons involved in the cybercrime.

Briefing media at Ved Vyas Auditorium here, Superintendent of Police (SP) Ch Sudheer Kumar Reddy said that five persons, Bobbili Nava Kishore, Gajula Shiva Keshav, Ragala Krishna Chaitanya, Bacchu Kiran and Paras Shiva Prasad, all residents of Guntur were involved in cybercrime. He said a student pursuing medicine in Kurnool medical college fell prey to online fraud.

The student unknowingly clicked an online link in the AMZER website after going through an advertisement. Later the student realised that she was cheated by the online fraudsters. She immediately filed a complaint with III-Town police. After registering the case under sections 420, IPC&66-D IT Act, the police took up investigation, stated Sudheer Kumar Reddy.

III-Town Circle Inspector M Tabrez, Central Crime Station (CCS) Circle Inspector Penukonda Shivaiah formed teams and managed to catch the fraudsters. The accused used to send advertisement links through web pages and APK links for playing online games, shopping applications and betting applications. Those who are attracted to the online games, would click the links to play the games. At a later stage, the persons would realise that they were cheated by the fraudsters, said the SP.

On the directions of prime accused Bobbili Shiva Kishore, Gajula Shiva Keshava has started a data entry office in the name Shealtiel Info Tech Private Ltd at Chirala a year ago. They have secured the Aadhaar cards of the employees, who joined the office and their relatives besides the friends of other three accused stating that they will get the amount deposited in their accounts from the Central and state governments. By gaining trust, the five accused have opened nearly 100 accounts in the prime banks like, ICICI, HDFC and Axis banks.

After opening accounts in their names, the accused would keep full details like, internet banking ID, password with them. The accused will then create various online games, shopping websites and a variety of apps in the names of account holders. Later they will ask the players to deposit an amount and cheat them. The prime accused Bobbili Nava Kishore would take the major share and distribute the remaining among the other four persons, the SP said.

The accused have expanded their business in Telangana, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Maharashtra including Andhra Pradesh. So far, 50 accounts have been detected, of them 30 accounts were freezed.

Even 16.50 lakh were also freezed besides seizing Rs 2 lakh cash from their possession. A look out notice was issued to catch the prime accused Bobbili Nava Kishore. The SP appealed to the people to beware while clicking the links that have been received.

He lauded the Circle Inspectors M Tabrez, Penukonda Shivaiah, M Thimma Reddy and constables M V Srinivasulu, Janardhan and others for arresting the accused and cracking the case.