Patiala, Jan. 4 -- As many as seven people were arrested from Maharashtra in connection with the Rs.8.1-crore cyber fraud case pertaining to retired Punjab inspector general (IG) of police Amar Singh Chahal, Patiala police said on Saturday. Chahal had attempted suicide after falling victim to the fraud. Those arrested are Chander Kant, Lakhan Srichand, Somnath, Ranjit Nambardar, Prateek Uttam, Ashish Kumar and Mohammad Hansri. Confirming the development, Patiala SSP Varun Sharma said the arrested suspects would be brought to Patiala soon. "All of the arrested people are from Maharashtra. The Patiala police are bringing them to Patiala," said the SSP. He added that the racket was being run from Dubai. The ongoing investigation has revealed that the fraudsters used bank accounts of poor people for fraudulent bank transactions. Patiala range DIG Kuldip Singh Chahal said investigators had already recovered around 600 SIM cards and identified more than 500 bank accounts that were suspected to have been used in the layered fraud network. These accounts are believed to have functioned as mule accounts to route and launder money across multiple states. Earlier, the police had frozen nearly 25 bank accounts linked to the cyber fraud gang and stopped the transfer of around Rs.3.5 crore belonging to former IPS officer AS Chahal. The victim, who retired in 2019, allegedly opened fire on himself at his residence in Patiala on December 22. He is under treatment at a hospital in the city. The cyber crime police station of Patiala had registered an FIR Sections 316(2), 336(3), 340(2), 318(4), 319(2) and 61(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), along with Section 66(D) of the Information Technology Act. The sections pertain to criminal conspiracy, breach of trust, cheating by impersonation and forgery with intent to cheat. During the investigation, the police had recovered a 12-page suicide note purportedly written by Chahal to director general of police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav, alleging large-scale cheating by cyber criminals posing as wealth management advisors through a WhatsApp group, titled F777 DBS Wealth Equity Research Group. Chahal, who retired in 2019, is one of the accused in the 2015 Kotkapura firing case related to a protest over sacrilege incident....