The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has carried out searches at 89 locations across 20 States in connection with three major “digital arrest” scam cases as part of Operation Chakra-VI, arresting three persons so far.
Three arrested
Their examination revealed their specific roles in receiving, layering and dispersing the fraud proceeds, the investigating agency said. In another case, the accused used a similar modus operandi to trap a resident of Gujarat into believing that he had been digitally arrested. During the operation, the CBI arrested three persons. Taking serious note of the alarming scale of such crimes, t he Supreme Court has directed the CBI to take concerted action against the perpetrators and the wider networks facilitating such offences .
One of the cases pertains to BITS Pilani, where the victim was kept under “digital arrest” for three months, and ₹7.67 crore was extorted from him by scammers posing as police officers. The victim was kept under “digital arrest” for three months and allegedly extorted of ₹19.24 crore.
In the third case, a victim in Karnataka was forced to pay ₹15.45 crore over a period of one month.
