Mumbai (PTI): Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Wednesday said TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu and JDU's Nitish Kumar, whose support is key to the formation of the next government, have to decide whether they want to join hands with an autocrat, a remark apparently aimed at the BJP leadership.

Talking to reporters, Raut said his party will not oppose if Congress leader Rahul Gandhi decides to lead the INDIA bloc government and be the prime ministerial face.

The INDIA bloc leaders will meet in New Delhi on Wednesday to discuss the further course of action.Raut also said PM Modi should accept that he has faced moral defeat as his party did not get a majority to form the government and that the Modi brand is now finished.

"Chandrababu and Nitish Kumar have to decide whether they want to go with an autocrat and work in a democratic system. I don't think they will go with an autocrat," Raut said.

"Modi ji is not forming a government for the third time," he claimed.

As per the Lok Sabha elections results, the BJP has bagged 240 seats, 32 short of an absolute majority.

With support from key allies N Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Nitish Kumar's JD(U), which won 16 and 12 seats in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, respectively, and other alliance partners, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) crossed the halfway mark.

 

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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.