Kanpur, May 1 -- Eight people, including branch managers and relationship officers from four private banks, have been arrested in Kanpur for allegedly running a cyber fraud network involved in digital arrests, fake GST firms and large-scale financial scams, that duped victims across the country of approximately Rs 180 crore. According to DCP South Deependra Nath Chowdhary, the case has emerged as one among the first in the state to document collusion between an organised cyber fraud network and employees across multiple banks simultaneously. Three of the accused were arrested earlier. Subsequent investigation led to the arrest of the remaining five on Thursday, said officials. Police commissioner Raghubir Lal on Thursday named Dharmendra Singh, operations head at a bank in Kannauj and his colleague Amit Singh, deputy manager at the same branch, Amit Kumar, branch manager at another bank's Swaroop Nagar branch, and Aashish Kumar, relationship manager at a bank's Swaroop Nagar branch. Tanishk Gupta, an agent tasked with opening accounts, completes the banking contingent. The three others-Sonu Sharma of Barra, Satish Pandey, and Sahil Vishwakarma of Govindnagar-are accused of holding the accounts through which the defrauded money was routed, the officials added. Investigations revealed that the accused created fake GST-registered firms to open current and trust accounts in multiple banks, including major public and private institutions. These accounts were used to channel illicit funds obtained through scams such as "digital arrests," where victims are manipulated into transferring money under false legal threats. Preliminary findings indicate: Rs.53.37 crore passed through one fake GST-linked account; Rs.66 crore through another account; Rs.5 crore via a third account; and an additional Rs.58 crore linked to a separate cyber fraud case in Navi Mumbai. htc...