11 held in Jamnagar for renting out bank accounts to scammers

Rajkot: Transactions amounting to Rs 51 lakh were carried out over a few weeks in the bank accounts of a Jamnagar father and son, both autorickshaw drivers, whose total assets were not worth this amount.
Jamnagar Cybercrime police have found 11 accounts where Rs 4 crore worth of suspicious transactions were carried out in a short span of time.
These account holders were allegedly renting them out to cybercriminals operating from various parts of the country or abroad.Jamnagar Cybercrime police have booked 19 people for renting out bank accounts.
Investigators were spurred into making inquiries with banks after police from four states — Maharashtra, Haryana, Goa and Kerala — visited the city to investigate cyberfraud offences in their jurisdictions, where bank accounts from Jamnagar were used.
"When police from other states began coming to Jamnagar, we understood that accounts here were being used to deposit the proceeds of crime. We inquired with banks about suspicious transactions and got details of 30 such accounts. We found 11 accounts where high-value transactions — between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1.5 crore — took place in a short span of time," inspector I A Dhasura of Jamnagar Cybercrime police station told TOI.
On examining the suspected accounts, online complaints about them were found on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCCRP).
Some money had been placed under liens on instructions from the police of other states. When police suspect an account was used in a cyber fraud, they instruct the bank to put the amount in question under a lien, meaning the account holder cannot access it until it is unfrozen by police.
According to police, these account holders had handed over their bank account kits to certain ‘handlers' in exchange for which they would receive a monthly rent.
The accused are relatively poor people such as rickshaw and truck drivers and labourers. Police got the names of some of these handlers who are based in Jamnagar. They appear to be petty criminals and are currently at large. Police are yet to find who the lynchpins of the racket are.
"We are investigating what kinds of fraud, such as those perpetrated through apps, by using OTPs, investment fraud, was committed using these accounts. We have found suspect transactions worth Rs 4 crore but feel the value of such transactions could rise to as high as Rs 8 crore. We also expect to find more such accounts," Dhasura added.
Police have arrested eleven such account holders: Mayur Sodha (44), Amir Gandhar (21), Ubed Godhaviya (39), Mahendra Kanjariya (33), Jaffarulakha Lodi (51), Bashitkhan Lodi (20), Anand Chothani (23), Mohebali Makwana (28), Devraj Chovatiya (32), Samir Tikariya (26) and Mukesh Rathod (26).