New Delhi, July 10 : A special court here on Tuesday extended till August 7 the interim protection from arrest granted to senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram in the Aircel-Maxis deal case.

Special Judge O.P. Saini directed Chidambaram to join the investigation whenever required.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had opposed the decision, saying the former Finance Minister and his son were evasive in their replies and as such ED would not be able to get to the truth if they were granted bail

ED pleaded that it is doing the investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act to unearth the larger conspiracy involved in the approval given by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) for the Aircel-Maxis deal.

On May 30, the court granted interim protection to P. Chidambaram till June 5 which was leter extended till July 10.

Earlier, the court had granted interim protection to Karti Chidambaram from arrest till July 10 in the same case.

The Central Bureau of Investigation and the ED are investigating how Karti Chidambaram allegedly managed to get clearance from the FIPB for the Aircel-Maxis deal when P. Chidambaram was the Finance Minister in 2006.

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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.