Missing RTI activist found dead; police suspect murder
Pune : A 32-year-old RTI activist, who went missing last month, was found dead in Pune district of Maharashtra, a police official said on Tuesday.
Police suspect that the deceased, Vinayak Shirsath, was killed by someone, a senior official Bharti Vidyapeeth police station here said.
The decomposed body was found near Mutha village on Lavasa road on Monday evening, he said.
Shirsath, a resident of Pune city, went missing on January 30 following which his family members had registered a police complaint on January 31.
"We later registered a kidnapping case on February 5 after his family raised suspicion that he might have been abducted as he had raised voice under the Right to Information (RTI) Act against illegal constructions in some parts of the city," the official said.
Shirsath's family pointed fingers at several people linked to the real estate sector, but during the probe, all of them were found to be close friends of the deceased, he said.
A case has now been registered under Indian Penal Code Sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) and a probe is underway, he said.
The body has been sent for post mortem and its report is awaited to ascertain the exact cause of death, he added.
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Bank account in Ramgarh tracked for fraudulent fund transactions across 24 states, 4 arrested
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.
