In the first such conviction of an organised cyber fraud case involving youths from Jamtara, the Special PMLA court in Ranchi Jharkhand today held guilty of money laundering to five notorious cyber criminals named as Pradeep Kumar Mandal, Pintu Mandal, Ganesh Mandal, Ankush Kumar Mandal and Santosh
Mandal.
The Quantum of sentence will be announced by the court on Tuesday. The convicts were taken into custody.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had earlier seized assets valued at approximately Rs 66 lakh from cyber criminals in the Jamtara district of Jharkhand.
These assets, confiscated under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), consisted of three residential properties in Mirga village, four vehicles, and bank deposits belonging to Pradeep Kumar Mandal, Pintu Mandal, Ankush Kumar Mandal, Santosh Mandal, and Ganesh Mandal.
The ED initiated criminal proceedings under the PMLA against these individuals following a Jharkhand police FIR and chargesheet that accused them of illegally withdrawing and transferring money from ATMs and bank accounts by posing as bank officials.
The ED's investigation revealed that the accused, along with accomplices, obtained money through deceitful means from bank customers and others, which they then invested in building houses and buying vehicles.
The agency filed a chargesheet in a special PMLA court in Ranchi in May 2019, and charges have been framed against all the accused, with the trial currently ongoing.
The ED had taken up the investigation of the cyber fraud cases in the year 2018 on the request of Jharkhand Police. The convicts were charged with siphoning off huge amounts of money from several high people’s accounts through cyber fraud.
One of the accused even siphoned off Rs 5 lakh from Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan’s account.
The convicts had also built palatial houses from the ill-gotten money in Jamtara, which were seized by the ED.
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