CID team visits Rayagada hotel where 2 Russian nationals died
Bhubaneswar, Dec 30: A team of the CID of Odisha Police accompanied by forensic experts on Friday visited the hotel in Odisha's Rayagada district where two Russian nationals died under mysterious circumstances, an official said.
The CID is probing the mysterious death of Russian nationals - Vladimir Bidenov (61) and Pavel Antov (65), a lawmaker in that country. While Bidenov's body was found in the hotel room at Rayagada on December 22, Antov died on December 24 after a fall from the third floor of the hotel building.
Bidenov's post-mortem said that he died due to heart attack after consuming liquor while Antov's death was attributed to "accidental" fall from a height.
The CID visited the hotel at Rayagada along with SFSL (state forensic science laboratory) team and inspected the place where the body of Antov was found lying. The team inspected the entire area thoroughly with the assistance of scientific team and photo bureau, the official said.
The team detailed the spot map indicating all relevant references of the spot, the official said, adding that one pair of slippers said to be of deceased Antov, was collected from the spot.
The investigating team assisted by the scientific team also searched for evidence in the hotel room where Bidenov and Antov were staying on December 21. It also collected all the evidence including slippers, latent fingerprints from glass and other surfaces, the official said, adding that the sleuths also searched thoroughly for evidence in another room where Antov was stayed alone from December 22 night after death of Bidenov.
The team collected drinking glass and water bottles from Antov's room. "The chance fingerprint found on drinking glass where properly gathered and photographed for further action," an agency statement said.
The CID team also talked to police officers of Rayagada Police Station where the cases were registered in connection with the deaths of two Russian nationals. The local police was investigating into the matter before the CID took up the probe.
Meanwhile, two other Russian nationals and fellow travellers of Antov and Bidenov, identified as Pansasenko Natalia (44) and Turov Mikhail (64), were on Friday further examined at the CID headquarters at Cuttack. "Their statements were video recorded through an interpreter," an official said.
Meanwhile, the Russian Ambassador to India Denis Alipov in a twitter post said that there was no wrong done in performing the last rites of the deceased duo. The controversy came to light after some people raised question on cremation of the two Russian Christians instead of being buried.
Alipov has also said that he is happy with the investigation launched by the Indian police, clarifying as per the Russian traditions, a body can be buried or consigned to flames.
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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.
