Painter & driver, joint directors of firm, banker held for opening mule accounts

Accused taxi driver Purushottam Behera Accused house painter Rajesh Kumar Jena Accused taxi driver Purushottam Behera Accused house painter Rajesh Kumar Jena Accused taxi driver Purushottam Behera Bhubaneswar: A taxi driver and a house painter, both school dropouts who allegedly held positions as joint directors of a hospitality firm, and an employee of a private bank were arrested by Bhubaneswar police on Monday for allegedly facilitating the opening of mule bank accounts used by cyberfraudsters operating across the country.Police identified the accused as Jitendra Kumar Khuntia (33), a field agent with a private bank; painter Rajesh Kumar Jena (34); and driver Purushottam Behera (35). Police are also on the lookout for their alleged gang leader Krushna Chandra Behera who works for another private bank.'Jena, who studied till Class VI, and Behera, who studied up to Class IX, were made joint directors of a company floated by Khuntia in Jan. The firm was ostensibly set up to provide hospitality services and manpower, but we found that it was being used as a front to facilitate a cyberfraud racket,' said ACP Suchismita Das of the Bhubaneswar cyber police station.Police said Jena and Behera were allegedly lured with the offer of lucrative payments to become joint directors of the company. They subsequently became mule account holders and allegedly shared their banking credentials with cyber scammers operating from Delhi, Kolkata and other parts of the country, police sources said.'We have traced 25 mule accounts opened by the accused in multiple private and public sector banks. Suspicious transactions worth over Rs 30 lakh were noticed in those accounts. The involvement of arrested bank employee Khuntia and absconding Krushna suggests the possible complicity of other bank employees in the mule account racket,' ACP Das said.Police are now probing the financial transactions routed through the mule accounts and the extent of the network allegedly linked to the accused.