Palakkad (Kerala) (PTI): In a daring rescue effort, fire force personnel on Tuesday saved four people, including an elderly man and woman, who were stranded on a rock in the middle of the swollen Chittoor river in Palakkad district.

The water level in the Chittoor river rose due to the release of water from the Moolathara regulator area, following rains in its catchment areas.

Kerala Power Minister Krishnankutty quickly arrived at the scene, taking charge of the rescue efforts, officials said.

Fire force personnel then launched a brave operation, carefully reaching the rock and connecting it to the riverbank with a rope.

Visuals aired by TV news channels showed that the four stranded persons, provided with life jackets, were then safely brought by the fire force personnel to shore on inflatable rescue tubes attached to the rope to prevent them from being swept away.

Minister Krishnankutty congratulated the fire force personnel on their dauntless operation.

There was an orange alert issued for Palakkad, warning of very heavy rain of 11 cm to 20 cm. Officials said that the necessary warnings had been issued about the possibility of rising water levels due to the rains, urging people living along the Chittoor river to exercise vigil.

However, the four persons, all residents of Mysuru in Karnataka, who had come to Palakkad looking for jobs, had stepped into the river unaware of the warnings issued, and got stranded when the water level suddenly rose.

 

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Ramgarh (Jharkhand) (PTI): Jharkhand police on Thursday said it has unearthed a network of interstate cyber frauds and arrested four miscreants for fraudulent transactions through a bank account in Ramgarh district after complaints of 274 suspected transactions in 24 states.

The states where complaints for fraudulent transactions were registered included Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.

The action followed inputs received through 'Samanvaya portal', a centralised, web-based platform launched by the Union Home Ministry to curb cybercrime.

"We arrested four cyber miscreants after a current account with Kuju (Ramgarh) branch of the State Bank of India was found to have registered suspected financial transactions in 24 states with the help of the Pratibimba portal of the Home Ministry through the Samanvaya portal," Ramgarh Superintendent of Police Mukesh Kumar Lunayat said.

During the probe, police found that the account was opened under the MSME Udyam Registration scheme in the name of Shree Ganesh Enterprises, he said.

The account had been linked to as many as 274 complaints from different states related to cyber fraud and illegal fund transfers.

The registered proprietors of the enterprise were identified as Rahul Gupta (37), Ravi Kumar Verma (34), and Ajay Sharma (33), all residents of Ramgarh district, a statement from the Ramgarh police said.

During interrogation, Rahul Gupta and Ravi Kumar Verma revealed that they had opened multiple current accounts at the behest of Ritesh Agrawal alias Munna (40) and Sonu Kumar Jha (34).

They admitted receiving Rs 1.2 lakh in exchange for facilitating the opening of these accounts.

"The accused further confessed to sharing OTPs, activating mobile banking services, and handing over control of the accounts to the main operators through WhatsApp and Telegram groups. These accounts were then allegedly used to route fraudulent transactions.

Police said mobile data analysis of the accused led to the recovery of crucial digital evidence, including details of SIM cards, bank accounts, passbooks, ATM cards, QR code scanners, Aadhaar cards, and PAN cards shared through messaging platforms.

A total of four accused have been arrested so far and sent to judicial custody.

A case has been registered at the Cyber Crime Police Station under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023 and Sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

Further investigation is underway, the police said.