Surat, Aug 13: The Surat City Cyber Crime Cell in Gujarat has arrested an alleged associate of a Jamtara-based cyber fraud gang who, according to police, handled money siphoned from victims through mule bank accounts and converted the proceeds into cash before routing them back to other members of the network.

The accused, identified as 26-year-old Sitaram Mandal, a welding shop worker from Bisanpur village in Giridih district of Jharkhand, was taken into custody from Sabarmati Jail in Ahmedabad, where he was already lodged.

He was subsequently produced before a court and police obtained his two-day custody remand.

The arrest followed an investigation into a complaint in which a Surat resident’s son allegedly lost Rs 5,02,562 after downloading a fake RTO E-Challan APK file sent through WhatsApp.

Police said the incident began on November 20, 2025, when an unknown WhatsApp number sent the malicious APK file to the phone of the victim’s friend, Rakesh Sharma.

The compromised account was then used to circulate the file in a WhatsApp group involving the victim’s son’s friends.

After the victim downloaded the file, his phone was allegedly compromised without his knowledge, and Rs 5,02,562 was transferred from his bank account in multiple transactions.

The complainant contacted the national cybercrime helpline immediately after discovering the fraud and later approached the Surat Cyber Crime Cell on December 14, 2025.

A case was registered at the Cyber Crime Police Station under Sections 318(4), 336(2), 338, 336(3), 340(2), 61(2) and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and Sections 66(C) and 66(D) of the Information Technology Act, 2008.

Police said a technical investigation, including scrutiny of banking transactions, led them to Mandal, who was found to be in Sabarmati Jail.

Investigators alleged that Rs 1,47,954 from the complainant’s son’s account had been used for a credit bill payment arranged through an earlier arrested accused, Nishit Nathwani.

According to police, Nathwani retained a commission of 15 to 20 per cent and deposited the remaining cash through a cash deposit machine into Mandal’s bank account.

Mandal allegedly deducted a further 5 to 10 per cent commission before handing over the remaining cash to absconding members of the Jamtara gang in Jharkhand.

Police also found that Rs 2.72 lakh linked to cyber fraud involving this and other victims had been deposited through CDM transactions into Mandal’s Axis Bank account between November 21 and December 18, 2025.

The account recorded credit transactions totalling Rs 15,87,400 between September 19, 2025 and January 8, 2026. Police said Mandal has a previous criminal record, including an FIR registered in Giridih district in 2017 under cheating, forgery and Information Technology Act provisions.

He is also named in five Ahmedabad City Cyber Crime Police Station cases registered in 2026 involving cheating, impersonation, conspiracy and offences under the IT Act.

The investigation has found that the gang used malicious APK files designed to resemble legitimate applications or services.

According to police, once a victim clicked on and installed the file, the application sought administrative permissions that could allow access to SMS messages, contacts, call logs and photographs.

The gang allegedly used genuine-looking bank names, logos and icons to persuade victims to enter banking and KYC information.

Once access to banking details was obtained, money was transferred from the victim’s bank or payment applications to mule accounts or credit cards.

The proceeds were subsequently withdrawn or converted into cash and deposited through CDMs into accounts controlled by other members of the network, according to investigators.

Police said five accused had already been arrested in connection with the case before Mandal’s arrest.

The Cyber Crime Cell has urged people not to download APK files received from unknown sources, even when they appear to relate to RTO challans, banks, KYC updates, customer support, government schemes, appointment bookings or other familiar services.

It also advised people not to click on suspicious links received through SMS or email.

Kolkata : A female nursing staff member of state-run N.R.S. Medical College and Hospital in central Kolkata was found dead under mysterious circumstances on the hospital premises on Thursday.

Her body was found in the hospital washroom early in the morning. The deceased nursing staff was on night duty at the high dependency unit (HDU) of the gynaecology department of the said hospital on Wednesday.

As per the latest information available, after she was reported missing from duty for some time, her colleagues started looking for her, and finally discovered her body in a toilet early this morning.

The police were informed by the hospital authorities immediately. The body of the deceased nurse has been sent for post-mortem. The actual reason behind the death will be known only after the detailed autopsy report is available, said a hospital insider.

Two years ago, in August 2024, the body of a female junior doctor was recovered from the seminar room of the emergency department of state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in North Kolkata. Later, it was found that she was brutally raped and murdered the night before.

There were massive protests throughout the state over the incident, which gradually spread beyond the state and the national boundaries. The entire state witnessed uproar over the incident. This time, a nurse died mysteriously in a government hospital in Kolkata.

After that mishap, the previous Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress regime promised several measures to increase surveillance and security in the state-run medical establishments. However, even after that, questions were often raised over how much of this had been implemented in the last two years.

In March this year, a young man died after being trapped in the elevator of R.G. Kar, with the malfunctioning elevator not being attended to by the hospital staff for a long time. In the same month, a senior-citizen patient admitted at the same hospital died while walking to the second-floor toilet after not getting a stretcher.

New Delhi : As the Monsoon Session of the Parliament entered its last day on Thursday, Samajwadi Party (SP) MP, Ram Gopal Yadav, targeted the BJP-led ruling NDA, remarking that irrespective of whoever is in power “they should not be stubborn in the face of Opposition’s demands”.

Yadav’s statement came amid the Parliament deadlock between the Centre and the Opposition over a debate on the alleged police brutality against student protesters during the July 20 ‘Sansad Chalo’ march, held over exam irregularities and NEET paper leaks.

Speaking to reporters outside the Parliament House, SP MP Ram Gopal Yadav said: “Some Bills were bulldozed through the House which is against the norms of the Parliament…When someone is in power, they should not be stubborn in the face of the Opposition’s demands. The Home Minister (Amit Shah) is ready to give a statement. His statement came yesterday. He said that questions should be given to the Speaker in writing, and they will reply to them. There has never been such a practice or tradition.”

“The convention has always been that ministers give statements, and MPs from all parties who want to ask questions can seek clarifications within the time limit…it is not like a press conference. They (ruling alliance) may say that the Opposition is running away but we can’t be a part of it when Parliamentary conventions are being broken,” he stated.

A day earlier, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that he was “ready to answer everything” regarding the debate sought by the Opposition.

However, Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, while commenting on the debate offer from Home Minister Shah, said on Wednesday that the Opposition was not interested in the Home Minister’s “imagination or lectures” and added that the young generation wants to know who gave orders to “shoot” at them.

Later on Wednesday, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said that if the Congress and other Opposition parties agree to attend the discussion they sought even on the last day of the Parliament’s Monsoon Session on Thursday, the “Centre is willing to extend the time”.