By Our Staff Reporter
DEHRADUN, 22 Mar: The Special Task Force (STF) has uncovered a major international cyber fraud gang and arrested two criminals involved in financial scams. The STF said, these fraudsters were operating bank accounts for cyber criminals and laundering money through crypto currency. Over the past year, they earned Rs 1.2 crore, with Rs 25 lakh received in March 2025, both accused were arrested from Rajpur on Saturday. In the first week of March 2025, the Government of India repatriated 540 Indian citizens from Myanmar in connection with cyber-crime networks operating from South Asian countries. Among them, 22 individuals belonged to Uttarakhand.
According to the STF, both accused Harinder Singh and Sandeep Singh are from Udham Singh Nagar. They lured individuals and opened multiple current accounts in different bank under various firm names. They later handed over these accounts, along with cheque books, debit cards, and OTP-linked mobile numbers, to cyber criminals through an X HELPER APP. These accounts were then used for illegal transactions in India and abroad. The STF said they received 1 per cent of every transaction in cryptocurrency (USDT) via Trust Wallet. They later sold the cryptocurrency at a lower price through Telegram channels to obtain Indian currency. The money was deposited into various pre-created bank accounts, withdrawn via ATMs, and used for personal profit. The police have recovered one laptop, seven mobile, one passport, two cheque books, three debit card, two Pancards, one passbook and stamp seals and bank account forms from them.
Tenth grade pass offender, Sandeep, was an expert in opening corporate bank accounts. Due to his expertise, cyber criminals invited him to Malaysia in June-July 2024, where he trained others in cyber fraud techniques. Authorities are now investigating the crypto transactions linked to hawala traders. The operation was carried out by RB Chamola (Deputy Superintendent of Police, STF), Inspector NK Bhatt, Inspector Vipin Bahuguna, Inspector Devendra Nabiyal, Sub-Inspector Mukesh Chandra, Sub-Inspector Devendra Bharti, Head Constable Sandesh, Head Constable Devendra Mamgain, Head Constable Pramod Panwar.
