Agartala, Feb 28 (PTI) Police arrested five people here for their alleged involvement in turning black money into white, an officer said on Friday.

The matter came to light when a person came to a travel agency in Math Chowmuhani area here on Thursday and paid Rs 10,000 online to purchase a ticket to Kashmir, the officer said.

After a few hours, the same person came to the travel agency and cancelled his ticket and received the refund money.

The owner of the travel agency then received a phone call from Tamil Nadu police stating that his account had been frozen as illegal money was sent to his account online.

The owner of the travel agency then lodged a complaint at East Agartala police station against the person who purchased the ticket and then cancelled it.

The police launched an investigation and tracked down the man and based on his confession also arrested four others, who are involved in the fraud, said officer-in-charge of East Agartala police station, Rana Chatterjee.

Police seized many ATM cards and bank passbooks from the possession of the arrested five people.

"They would first make an online payment to a person's account and later retrieve the money online, turning black money into white," he said.

Chatterjee said the gang encouraged people to open a number of bank accounts and rent their ATM cards at the rate of Rs 2,500 to 3,000 per month which they used to make digital frauds.

Sub-divisional Police Officer (SDPO), Sadar, Debaprasad Roy said, "We are further investigating the case." PTI JOY RG

Money laundering via online refund schemes alleged after arrests for using ticket cancellations to convert illicit funds into legitimate transactions. Allegations of money laundering via a digital refund scheme are under investigation after five arrests for making online payments into travel-agency accounts then cancelling tickets to obtain refunds, thereby cycling illicit proceeds through banking channels; police allege the gang induced multiple bank account openings, rented ATM cards to perpetrators, and seized numerous ATM cards and bank passbooks as part of ongoing inquiries.