Cybercrime : Gujarat Police Unfreeze 27,000 Bank Accounts

Ahmedabad : The Director General of Police (DGP), Vikas Sahay, has decided to unfreeze 27,000 bank accounts involved in cybercrime across the state. The Gujarat police chief made the decision in response to charges made against police officers probing cybercrime frauds for their involvement. The bank accounts where fraud money initially deposited for the first time would be unfrozen, as suggested by IPS officials in the Gujarat cyber cell department. 

While the state’s 27,000 bank account holders breathed a sigh of relief, the police have made it essential for individuals to produce documentation that their bank accounts are not associated with cyber criminals. In the case of cyber fraud, there were several accusations of police harassment and money extortion when bank accounts were incorrectly frozen.

The police’s stringent tactics to freeze bank accounts in response to the increased prevalence of cybercrime sparked widespread concern. There were also reports that the police were freezing bank accounts in order to gain access to them, and police officials were arrested in the Bhavnagar case, when the police demanded millions of rupees to unlock bank accounts. In this case, State Police Chief Vikas Sahay met with the IPS officers operating in the Cyber Cell to seek quick advice. It was discovered that the cyber fraud gang were depositing money into merchant accounts as well as the victim’s account.

Fraud gangs using the guise of share trading are targeting many people in many states. The Gujarat Police are checking the cyber thug’s bank account as part of their probe into a fraud case. After freezing it, the cybercriminals also freeze the funds transferred to other accounts. Thus, the holder of the Gujarat Police-frozen bank account could be a victim of cyber fraud.

If the funds were transferred from the fraudster’s account to another, the police would freeze both accounts. In this way, if the funds were transferred to five or six separate accounts in a single fraud case, they were all blocked. As a result, people were becoming increasingly upset. The cyber cell and police followed the state police chief’s directions and unfroze approximately 27,000 frozen bank accounts throughout the state. 

Vikas Sahay, the DGP, stated: “We decided to investigate after increasing complaints of police unfreezing bank accounts wrongly.” However, the police were acting in support of their investigation. In several cases, bank account holders were the victims.

State Police Chief Vikas Sahay remarked that for the first time in the history of cyber fraud, the police have been directed not to block the account where the fraudulent funds are being deposited for the first time.   However, the police have been asked to verify the account holder’s identity.  If the fraudulent funds get deposited in the same bank account for the second time, the police may freeze them.