Three more held in Rs 3.41-cr digital arrest fraud case

The cybercrime wing of the UT police has arrested three more persons in the digital arrest fraud in which the victim was duped of Rs 3.41 crore.

The total number of arrests in the case has risen to five. The investigation is being held under the supervision of Geetanjali Khandelwal, SP (Cyber Crime).

The three accused — Avtar Singh (21), Amritpal Singh (25) and Sunil Kumar (24) — are residents of Sirsa district in Haryana. Amritpal and Sunil played a key role in persuading Avtar Singh to open a bank account in his name at IndusInd Bank. Once the account was operational, it was used to receive Rs 9.40 lakh transferred by the victim. Both accused withdrew the entire amount in cash, kept 1% as their commission and passed on rest to another accused, who is absconding.

The scam came to light after Dilip Singh Bajwa, a resident of Sector 2-A, Chandigarh, lodged a complaint with the police. On March 18, Bajwa received a call from an international number. The caller claimed that a virtual bank account had been opened in his name. To lend credibility to the claim, the caller even showed Bajwa a forged ATM card via video call. The following day, the caller alleged that Bajwa’s account was linked to a Rs 2-crore money-laundering case involving jailed businessman Naresh Goyal. He was accused of accepting a ?20 lakh in commission and threatened with digital arrest.

The fraudsters showed the victim a fake Supreme Court arrest warrant and kept him on a continuous video call. They forced Bajwa to transfer a total of Rs 3.41 crore into various bank accounts.

The elaborate setup and the level of impersonation used by the fraudsters to intimidate the victim pointed to a highly organised cybercrime syndicate. The UT cybercrime police are tracing the remaining suspects and recover the victim’s money.

Meanwhile, the police urged residents to remain cautious and report any such incidents immediately to cybercrime helplines or the local police stations.