New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has launched one of its wider recent operations against organised “digital arrest” syndicates, conducting searches at 89 locations across 20 States and arresting eight people in three cases involving alleged fraud of Rs 42.36 crore.
The action was carried out under Operation Chakra-VI, with the investigation going beyond the immediate perpetrators to trace the flow of money and identify the handlers and beneficiaries supporting the syndicates.
The three cases reveal the scale of the fraud. In a case involving a BITS Pilani victim, scammers posing as police officers allegedly kept the victim under “digital arrest” for three months and extorted Rs 7.67 crore. A similar operation against a Gujarat resident allegedly resulted in the transfer of Rs 19.24 crore over three months, while a Karnataka victim was allegedly forced to pay Rs15.45 crore in one month.
The CBI’s investigation is examining the financial architecture used to move the proceeds. Searches were conducted after detailed analysis of bank accounts and online account-access data. Banking records, digital devices and other documents seized during the operation are being forensically examined to identify links across States.
Among the first three arrests was Akash from Haryana, whose account allegedly received Rs 1.95 crore of the fraud proceeds before the money was transferred to other accounts on the same day. Raja Karmakar of Kolkata allegedly received Rs 1.5 crore through his firm’s account, while Jyoti Rani allegedly withdrew part of the money in cash and transferred the remainder to other accounts.
The probe subsequently led to five more arrests on September 6, taking the total to eight. The CBI found that some of the accused allegedly arranged bank accounts specifically to receive fraud proceeds and subsequently layered the money through multiple accounts.
A particularly significant finding involves the use of technology to facilitate the financial fraud. Three of the newly arrested accused allegedly installed a malicious APK on a bank account holder’s mobile phone, enabling interception of bank SMS alerts and covert access to the account.
For India’s law-enforcement and financial-security machinery, the investigation highlights an important dimension of digital arrest cases: the fraud does not end when a victim is coerced into transferring money. Behind the impersonation and intimidation can be a distributed network handling bank accounts, moving funds, accessing devices and attempting to obscure the money trail.
The CBI is continuing efforts to identify and apprehend other members of the syndicates and unravel their wider financial and technological infrastructure.
BI Bureau
