Five more held in Rs 38 lakh digital arrest fraud case
Case originated from a complaint filed by a Chandigarh resident
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, January 31
Officials of the Cybercrime Police Station, Chandigarh, have arrested five more accused in a high-value “digital arrest” cyber fraud case, taking the total number of arrests in the case to 11. The arrests mark a major breakthrough in the FIR dated January 9, registered under multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, at the Cybercrime Police Station, Chandigarh.
The operation was carried out under the leadership of SP (Cyber) Geetanjali Khandelwal, with guidance from DSP (Cyber Crime and IT) A Venkatesh and supervision of Inspector Eram Rizvi, SHO, Cybercrime Police Station, Sector 17.
Those arrested were identified as Onkar Sharma (52), Abhinav Sharma, alias Abhi (43), Jaswinder Singh, alias Daddu (43), Varinder Kumar, alias Vicky, a resident of SAS Nagar, and Ankush Kumar, alias Tarun Gupta (29) from Mohali.
According to the police, the case originated from a complaint filed by a Chandigarh resident who was subjected to a fake “digital arrest” scam. On January 7, the complainant received threatening calls from unknown numbers, with callers impersonating officials of the Colaba Police Station, Mumbai. He was falsely accused of involvement in a money-laundering case and threatened with arrest and confiscation of property.
The fraudsters later made WhatsApp video calls showing forged arrest warrants and individuals wearing police uniforms. Another caller, posing as the “CBI Director”, claimed misuse of the complainant’s Aadhaar card. Under intense intimidation, the complainant was coerced into transferring Rs 38 lakh through the RTGS. He and his wife were allegedly kept under continuous “phone arrest” for nearly 24 hours.
Investigation revealed the involvement of an organised cybercrime syndicate operating through mule bank accounts. The police found that Rs 8 lakh from the cheated amount had been transferred to the account of Onkar Sharma. Jaswinder Singh allegedly arranged mule accounts and facilitated cash withdrawals, while Abhinav Sharma acted as an intermediary. Ankush Kumar and Varinder Kumar were involved in collection and movement of the crime proceeds, including conversion into cryptocurrency.
The police have sought further custody of the accused to trace additional associates and recover remaining proceeds of the crime, while urging the public to remain vigilant against such impersonation scams.
