Delhi Police bust cyber fraud syndicate, 13 held

Delhi Police cracked down on cyber fraudsters with the arrest of 13 accused in multiple cases, including three who digitally extorted an 82-year-old, duping him of Rs 1.16 crore, officials said on Saturday.

According to the Crime Branch Cyber Cell, the elderly victim was threatened with legal action and shown a fake arrest order over a WhatsApp video call, creating intense psychological pressure.

Under this duress, the victim transferred Rs 1.16 crore to accounts controlled by the fraudsters. In a significant breakthrough, three key members of the syndicate were arrested following coordinated raids in Himachal Pradesh and Bihar.

Investigations revealed that Rs 1.10 crore of the cheated amount was routed to a current account of an NGO based in Himachal Pradesh, which was being operated by fraudsters from Patna, Bihar.

The account has at least 32 complaints registered against it on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, involving an estimated Rs 24 crore. The arrested accused include Prabhakar Kumar of Nalanda, Bihar; Rupesh Kumar Singh of Vaishali, Bihar; and Dev Raj of Sirmaur, Himachal Pradesh, who ran the NGO used to launder the money.

In a parallel action under Operation CyberHawk-2.0, Delhi Police’s Rajinder Nagar police station detected mule bank accounts linked to interstate cyber fraud.

Verification of accounts flagged on the NCRP portal led to the arrest of two students, both aged 19, who had opened multiple bank accounts and SIM cards for illegal use in return for money. A total of Rs 1.08 lakh linked to cyber fraud cases was traced across three bank accounts, while efforts continue to arrest the main beneficiary, identified as Rahul alias Happy.

Meanwhile, the IFSO unit of Delhi Police’s Special Cell busted a major transnational cybercrime syndicate operating from Delhi and other states, arresting nine accused. Acting on intelligence inputs, police raided a hotel in Dwarka on 26 November and apprehended four suspects, leading to the identification and arrest of five more members of the network.

Investigations revealed that the syndicate operated through a structured chain of account holders, middlemen, and end-users, laundering cyber fraud proceeds through bank accounts and hawala channels, often converting funds into cryptocurrency. One bank account alone recorded over 10,000 transactions amounting to Rs 5.24 crore within five days.