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Investigation found that the main accused Pradeep Mandal had amassed properties worth Rs 9.9 million and was involved in money laundering. The immovable properties include at least three buildings in Jamtara area along with a Mahindra Scorpio vehicle and 2 motorcycles. (Representative image)
Investigation by the Education Department found that the defendant colluded with others to obtain funds from his bank account and his family's bank account by deceiving bank customers and other people, and invested in building houses and purchasing vehicles.
A special PMLA court in Ranchi on Saturday convicted five Jamtara residents in an organized cyber fraud case. The men were identified as Pradeep Kumar Mandal, Pintu Mandal, Ganesh Mandal, Ankush Kumar Mandal and Santosh Mandal.
The initial FIR in the matter was lodged at Naranpur police station in Jamtara district of Jharkhand in 2015 under Sections 414 (Assisting in concealment of stolen property), 419 (Punishment for cheating by impersonation), 420 (Cheating and Dishonesty), Section 467 (Forgery) Indian Penal Code Section 468 (Forgery with intent to deceive) and Section 471 (Treating forgery to be genuine) and Sections 66(b), 66(c) and 66(d) Information Technology Act.
The Netflix series “Jamtara” is said to be based on true events involving phishing calls and bank account scams by criminals in the region, which has led to the region being dubbed the “cybercrime capital” for years.
operating mode
The accused Ganesh Mandal told the Enforcement Directorate in a statement that Pradeep Mandal and Pintu Mandal used to collect phone numbers of bank customers from the Internet. He then called these individuals posing as a bank manager and illegally obtained their ATM/bank account details in order to subsequently transfer the funds to himself. The gang also used other methods to gather information about customers' ATM details.
Another accused Ankush Mandal also revealed that they would call bank customers pretending to be bank managers and claim that their cards might be blocked in order to obtain their ATM details. Thereafter, an OTP is generated and after receiving the victim's code, the amount is transferred from their account to Paytm, Vodafone and other digital wallets and then to Mandal's bank account.
recover
Investigation found that the main accused Pradeep Mandal had amassed properties worth Rs 9.9 million and was involved in money laundering. The immovable properties include at least three buildings in Jamtara area as well as a Mahindra Scorpio vehicle and 2 motorcycles.
During its investigation, the ED found that none of the five individuals had any legal source of income through which they could purchase the property.
A special court of PMLA judge Prabhat Kumar Sharma found all five accused guilty of the crime and the sentencing will be announced on Tuesday.
