Mangaluru: The Mangaluru city police have arrested three persons from Bihar in connection with an Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) fraud case. 

The arrested have been identified as Deepak Kumar Hembram (33), Vivek Kumar Bishwas (24), and Madan Kumar (23).

According to Commissioner of Police Anupam Agrawal, the detainees were involved in illegally collecting data from the Kaveri 2.0 software, which is typically used in property registration procedures. They would acquire Aadhaar numbers and biometric data through a scanner, and then siphon off funds from the bank accounts of unsuspecting land registrants.

Commissioner Agrawal disclosed that several individuals who had registered their properties at the Mangaluru Sub Registrar's Office over the past six months had fallen victim to the fraudulent scheme, losing substantial sums from various banks via the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System. As a result, the CEN station in the city had filed 10 cases pertaining to these incidents.

Under the directive of Commissioner Anupam Agrawal, a special team, led by DCPs Sidharth Goyal and Dinesh Kumar B P, as well as ACP Parameshwar Hegde, was constituted. This dedicated team successfully apprehended the trio in Purnia district, Bihar, and managed to freeze Rs 3,60,242 across 10 bank accounts linked to the suspects.

Mobile phones belonging to the arrested individuals have been confiscated, and technical experts are currently scrutinizing them. Additionally, the police have seized over 1,000 property registration letters in PDF format from Karnataka, along with more than 300 registration details from Andhra Pradesh and other states.

Further investigative measures include transporting the detainees to Bihar for on-site verification and the collection of additional crucial documents.