Five members of a Bihar-based inter-State cybercrime gang allegedly involved in around 498 cyber fraud cases across the country on the pretext of providing franchises of a fertiliser company were arrested by Jainath police in Adilabad district on Friday.

A detailed investigation into a cybercrime case registered at Jainath police station led to the arrests, said Adilabad Superintendent of Police, Akhil Mahajan.

The arrested were identified as Abhishek Kumar alias Sourav, Abinash Kumar, Ritesh Kumar, all three aged 24, Ashutosh Kumar alias Bablu, 33, and Nishu Kumar, 25, all natives of Bihar. Police seized 10 mobile phones and ₹70,000 in cash from the accused.

Addressing the media, Mr. Mahajan said around 498 cybercrime complaints had been reported against the accused across the country and they were suspected of cheating victims of around ₹3.5 crore.

About 90 complaints had been reported against them in Telangana alone.

The SP said that the accused created a fake website offering fertiliser company franchises and collected applicants’ Aadhaar and PAN details, photographs and bank account information. They allegedly cheated victims by collecting various charges in instalments on the pretext of service, licence and trade transfer fees.

The accused also allegedly operated a fake loan scheme and cheated hundreds of people of lakhs of rupees.

In a similar case, they allegedly cheated Ganesh of Mandagada village in Adilabad district of ₹3,85,725 by promising him a feriliser company franchise.

After receiving the money, they stopped responding to his calls and WhatsApp messages, following which he approached the police.

Further investigation revealed that they had allegedly invested around ₹8 lakh of the alleged fraud proceeds in bank accounts and stock market shares. The amount has been frozen as per procedure, the SP said.