Team News Riveting
Raipur, July 1
In a major breakthrough, the Bilaspur police in Chhattisgarh has cracked down on online betting platforms Mahadev Books, Reddy Anna and busted hundreds of fake bank accounts used for the illegal trade.
The action came on the direction of Bilaspur Superintendent of Police Santosh Singh. The police have arrested four persons and seized Rs 10 lakh cash besides 30 mobile handsets, 10 laptops and 10 automated teller machine (ATM) cards. The accused were identified as Rajat Jain (27), Bangalore, Kshitij Bhardwaj (20), Bobby Jaghav (28) and Karthik Vishwakarma (19), all residents of Bilaspur.
Singh said during the course of interrogation and investigation, a startling fact related to fake bank accounts came to the fore. “The investigating team identified 275 bank accounts that were opened with doctored documents and used for transactions by the online betting platforms,” the Bilaspur police chief said.
The accounts carrying a net balance of Rs 12 crore have been frozen, Singh said, adding that transactions of over Rs 50 crore had been performed in the fake bank accounts. The accused collected the documents of the known persons in the pretext of trading in the share market and opened the accounts in Yes, Axis Bank, ICICI, HDFC and IDFC, all private sector banks. The police could connect the involvement of bank employees in the opening of fake accounts, Singh said.
The registered numbers in the accounts did not verify with the holders’ number. The accused manipulated and procured fake SIM cards to facilitate smooth and successful transactions. The police have arrested the mobile shop owners also.
Over 600 VIP mobile numbers have been identified that were used for committing the crime. Singh said the process had been initiated to deactivate the numbers.
