Mumbai police bust gang involved in 'digital arrests'; six held from Gujarat

The Mumbai police have busted an interstate gang of cyber fraudsters with the arrest of six persons from Gujarat, involved in digital arrest cases, including one where a businessman was duped of Rs 58 crore, an official said on Friday.

A team from the city police nabbed the accused from Mehsana and Ahmedabad in Gujarat over the last few days, the official said.

According to the preliminary investigation, the main accused was in contact with fraudsters based in China and Cambodia and was instructed by them regarding bank accounts and transfer of swindled money, he said.

The official said the police tracked down the accused while probing into the case of a senior citizen residing in central Mumbai who was duped of Rs 70 lakh with the threat of digital arrest.

A case was registered at the RAK Marg police station, and a probe was launched.

'Digital arrest' is a growing form of cybercrime in which fraudsters pose as law enforcement officials or personnel from government agencies and intimidate victims through audio/video calls. They hold the victims hostage and put pressure on them to pay money.

Investigations have revealed that the same gang was involved in what could be one of the largest reported 'digital arrest' cyber fraud cases, in which a 72-year-old businessman was duped of a staggering Rs 58 crore, he said.

The businessman and his wife were put in ''digital arrest'' by the accused posing as CBI and ED officials over a period of two months.

The Maharashtra Cyber, which was investigating the case, will take custody of the arrested accused, the official said.

The accused would initially park the swindled amount into two bank accounts, later transfer it to 138 bank accounts and convert it to cryptocurrency and US dollars, he said.

Besides posing as officials from the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate, the accused also claimed to be senior officials of the ATS New Delhi and the National Investigation Agency (NIA). They had also posed as NIA chief and senior IPS officer Sadanand Date.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 4) Ragasudha R said that the accused include Sureshkumar Maganlal Patel (51), Musran Iqbalbhai Kumbhar (30), Chirag Mahesh Choudhary (29), Ankit Kumar Maheshbhai Shah (40), Vasudev alias Vivan Waljibhai Barot (27) and Yuvraj alias Marco alias Laxman Singh Sikarwar (34).

''Yuvraj is the kingpin of the gang who was in direct contact with the trans-national accused persons,'' she said, adding that he was involved in the cyber frauds for the last three years and used to get 3 per cent commission for the frauds.

He roped in local businessmen and traders holding current accounts in banks, used these accounts to park money from frauds, and provided them 3 per cent commission, the official said.

The accused also told a 68-year-old victim from Raigad who was duped of Rs 40 lakh in September that his name had figured in the probe into the Pahalgam terror attacks.

According to the police, 31 cases were registered against the arrested accused in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Agra, UP, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Telangana, Gujarat, Delhi, Haryana, Kerala and West Bengal.

So far, 15 bank accounts have been seized and Rs 10.5 lakh have been frozen, the official said, adding that there were some more wanted accused in Gujarat and Rajasthan.

Prima facie, the accused based in China and Cambodia would send APK files to the mobile numbers of their intended targets, and once these files were downloaded, the person lost control of the phone and cyber fraudsters used information from the device to dupe the victims, he said.