Police arrest key accused in fake trading scam that cost doctor Rs 4.43 cr

Kannur (Kerala) | Police have arrested a key accused, who arranged mule bank accounts for cyber fraudsters to cheat a 73-year-old doctor of Rs 4.43 crore through a fake online trading scheme at Mattannur in this north Kerala district, officials said on Saturday.

The accused, identified as Zainul Abideen (41), a native of Arakkappady in Ernakulam, was nabbed by the Kannur City Cyber Crime Police team from Ernakulam on Friday.

A mule account is a bank account opened in the name of another person, used for cyber fraud transactions. Most often, the bank account holder is paid a remuneration, and cyber fraudsters handle debit cards and online accounts linked to the bank account.

According to police, the victim, a retired government doctor, was lured into investing in a lucrative scheme via a WhatsApp group, with the promise of huge profits, on a trading platform named Upstox.

Following instructions sent over WhatsApp, the victim transferred money to various bank accounts between April and June this year. Each time an investment was made, a fake trading application showed inflated profits.

However, whenever the complainant attempted to withdraw funds, he was given technical excuses and asked to deposit more money. Eventually, when withdrawals became impossible, he realised it was a fraud, police said.

Investigations revealed that Abideen had arranged a bank account in the name of a Chennai native, Senthil Kumar, to which Rs 44 lakh belonging to the victim was transferred.

Senthil was unaware that his bank account was being used for cyber fraud activities, police said Abideen received Rs 1.2 lakh as commission for arranging the account, in addition to handling the ATM card, online transfers, and sharing OTPs with the fraudsters.

Earlier, Abideen's associates, Mahaboobash Farooq and Rijas, had been arrested from Chennai.

The accused was produced before a court and remanded to judicial custody.

Police have so far managed to freeze several bank accounts linked to the fraud, which together hold Rs 36 lakh.

Abideen also faces another cybercrime case in Visakhapatnam.

He was previously arrested by the Kannur Rural Cyber Crime Police in a separate online fraud case, but was later released on bail, they added.