The Pratapgarh police of Rajasthan has arrested mastermind of a gang involved in fraud of more than Rs 2,000 crores. The police has arrested one Mrigank Mishra, a resident of Madhya Pradesh from Mumbai airport. He was on run for last five months. He has also been identified as the operator of Mahadev online group involved in high volume betting racket. The police has also informed Enforcement Directorate about the arrest as the case may be linked to money laundering.
According to Pratapgarh Superintendent of Police Amit Kumar, Mrigank Mishra and his gang asked many people in Pratapgarh to open bank account and get a mobile connection on pretext of transferring of money from government schemes. They opened the account but didn't get any money from government schemes. Albeit there were reports of heavy transactions in their accounts without their knowledge.
“When the account holders came to know about the transactions, they came to us and registered a complaint. We filed FIR and started investigation,” Amit Kumar said.
Police got all the bank accounts debit freeze
The first step police took was to get accounts of all the complainants debit freeze to prevent outgo of money from accounts. Then police with the help of bank officials analysed those accounts to which money was transferred from the suspicious accounts. Police found that the money credited in suspicious accounts was from IPL and betting and from other nefarious activities. Police has been successful in holding transfer or payment of more than Rs 3.5 crore by debit freezing the accounts. It has also been successful in arresting four people of the gang and recovered more than 20 debit and credit cards.
The cyber team, investigating the case, found a trail of transaction of more than Rs 2,000 crores from these 68 bank accounts which have been seized.
Gang was being operated from Dubai.
Amit Kumar informed that the gang leader used to operate from Dubai. Police had issues look out notice for him.
He said that the cyber team following the online activities of Mrigank Mishra came to know that he would be landing in Mumbai on October 14, 2023.
A team then rushed to Mumbai airport and detained him when he landed. He was then brought to Pratapgarh where he has been sent on police remand till October 21, 2023.
The police is expected get more detail about the cricket betting and other organised online frauds committed by the gang.
Who is Amit Kumar
Amit Kumar is a 2018 batch IPS from Rajasthan cadre, who has been awarded with “Union Home Minister's Medal for Excellence in Investigation” for the year 2023.
Recently, Election Commission has also appreciated his promptness in crackdown of liquor smugglers.
A month ago, National Commission for Women (NCW) had appreciated Amit Kumar for filing FIR suo moto and arresting all 11 accused including husband of the pregnant woman, who was paraded naked in a village in Pratapgarh.
Vivek Shukla is a management graduate who has worked in corporate worked for 20 years and is now pursuing his passion — news.
