Frozen due to fraud, 2.3L bank accounts thawed

The scammers had deposited crores of rupees obtained fraudulently in these accounts; fraud proceeds locked, account holder free to use rest

- Sarfaraz.Shaikh

In a major operation, Gujarat police have unfrozen over 2,30,098 bank accounts belonging to residents of the state. These accounts had been frozen after cyber criminals deposited crores of rupees obtained through fraudulent means. Most of the account holders were from the lower middle class or middle class, and they were either tricked into allowing the funds to be deposited or were completely unaware of the transactions.

DGP Vikas Sahay explained that a team of cyber experts and senior CID officials had spent several days analysing the patterns used by cyber criminals to deposit and withdraw stolen funds. “We have unfrozen a total of 230,098 bank accounts that were frozen by investigating agencies because money siphoned off by cyber crooks was first transferred into these accounts,” he said.