Delhi man put under ‘digital arrest’, duped of Rs 25 lakh; 3 held

Three cyber thugs have been arrested for duping a Delhi resident of Rs 25 lakh by putting him under ‘digital arrest’, police said on Monday.

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Rahul Verma, Shantanu Richoriya (26), and Arjun Singh (25), were arrested from a hotel in the Paharganj area of the national capital, they said.

The suspects operated from hotel rooms in Delhi and worked with account holders, commonly known as ‘mules’, who were brought in person to facilitate transactions, an official said.

“Mahender Jain filed a complaint stating that he was conned into transferring Rs 25 lakh by a man who posed as a crime branch officer from the Nashik police,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southwest) Surendra Choudhary said.

On March 21, Jain received a video call during which the caller claimed that his Aadhaar card details had been misused to open fraudulent bank accounts and were linked to money laundering by a major airline company, he added.

The officer said that the caller allegedly showed Jain a photocopy of a bank card and coerced him into transferring his savings, selling his wife’s jewellery, and making further payments through online gateway and RTGS.

The fraudster threatened Jain of police action if he failed to comply, he said.

A probe was launched after registering a case under relevant sections of the BNS and the accused were traced, the officer said.

“During interrogation, it was found that Rahul Verma initially supplied his bank account to other accused but later became an active part of the syndicate,” a senior police officer said.

The three accused facilitated the movement of money through mule accounts, contacted international handlers via social media, and attempted to evade detection using fake identities, the officer said.

According to the police, the accused operated secret social media groups and used fake numbers to carry out the frauds.

So far, seven to eight mule accounts have been identified as part of the network, they said, adding that three mobile phones, four SIM cards, three cheque books, and four passbooks linked to seven different banks were recovered from them.

Efforts are on to identify and arrest other members of the syndicate, the DCP said, adding that further investigation is underway.

Digital arrest is a tactic where the accused pose as police or law enforcement agency officials, like CBI or customs officials, and threatens people of arrest by making calls in the name of fake international parcels or other pretext.