MUMBAI: As ‘digital arrest’ scams continue to spread across the country, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has launched a nationwide crackdown on cybercrime syndicates allegedly involved in defrauding victims of crores of rupees. The agency conducted coordinated searches at 89 locations across 20 states and arrested three people allegedly involved in receiving, layering and dispersing proceeds of the fraud.
The fraudsters allegedly posed as police officers investigating a crime and coerced the victim into transferring the money. The third accused, Jyoti, was arrested after investigators found that her bank account had allegedly received part of a victim’s defrauded money. In the Gujarat case, a victim was allegedly duped of ₹ 19.24 crore after being kept under illegal ‘digital arrest’ for three months. In the Rajasthan case, a victim associated with a reputed private deemed university in Pilani was allegedly defrauded of ₹ 7.67 crore after being subjected to a three-month-long ‘digital arrest’ by persons posing as police officers. One of those arrested, Akash, a resident of Haryana, allegedly received ₹ 1.95 crore of the defrauded money in his bank account.
The three cases are among several ‘digital arrest’ fraud cases in which the CBI has taken over investigations from police units in different states, officials said. “During the search operations, the CBI arrested three accused persons, whose examination revealed their specific and material role in receiving, layering and dispersing the fraud proceeds to project them as untainted funds,” a CBI official said. Investigators found that the account was allegedly opened for the purpose and that the money was transferred to other accounts on the same day, indicating his alleged role in laundering the proceeds, officials said. She allegedly withdrew a portion of the funds in cash and transferred the remaining amount to other accounts, helping disperse the money and obscure its trail, officials said.
The Karnataka case involved the alleged defrauding of a victim of ₹ 15.45 crore after the victim was kept under ‘digital arrest’ for about a month, officials said.
