20 hours ago
Pune digital arrest case: Pimpri Chinchwad police arrest two with ‘mule' accounts
Pune: Pimpri Chinchwad police's cyber wing arrested two men from Ahilyanagar district on Monday, in connection with the alleged "digital arrest" of a 47-year-old Pune man who lost Rs 53 lakh to fraudsters.
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Police claimed the arrested duo from Bolhegaon in Ahilyanagar district — one's a farmer while the other works at a finance company — allowed their bank accounts to be used as "mule accounts". Stolen money would be wired to their accounts and the duo would then withdraw the cash to hand it over to their handlers, the authorities alleged.
"Their handler is also from the same village, but is currently based in Pune. Our investigations show the handler had created at least 20 mule accounts in this village.
The details of these accounts were handed over to fraudsters based out of Maharashtra," said assistant inspector Pravin Swami, of Pimpri Chinchwad cyber police.
The two men arrested on Monday were identified as Akash Pathare (28) and Avinash Tungar (27). They were held as the police investigate the complaint by a Moshi resident who said that on April 2 he received a "letter" via a messaging app that claimed his bank account was being used to launder money and that he faced arrest.
One police official said: "The person at the other end told the Moshi resident he was an 'officer' with the Mumbai crime branch. He told the victim the cops and the bank needed to verify his bank account through a money transfer. The victim was even told the bank would return the money to him immediately after verification. Believing all this, the Moshi man transferred Rs 53 lakh to the three bank account numbers given to him.
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He never got the money back."
Senior inspector Ravikiran Nale of Pimpri Chinchwad cyber police told TOI that during their investigation, they found Rs 5.4 lakh of the money was transferred to a private bank's account. "So we took the details of this account holder from the bank and found that it was in Ahilyanagar district. We arrested Pathare who revealed three more names. We then arrested Tungar. A search is on for the two others," Nale said.
