Mumbai Police has exposed a cyber fraud gang which was extorting money from people through ‘digital arrest’. The police has exposed this gang’s game worth crores and arrested six accused from Gujarat. These accused used to threaten the elderly and businessmen by pretending to be officers of central agencies. They targeted hundreds of people across the country.
Police investigation has revealed that this gang was in direct contact with masterminds sitting in China and Cambodia. The main accused used to get instructions to transfer bank accounts and money from abroad. This network was working in such an organized manner that the defrauded amount was transferred to 138 bank accounts and then converted into cryptocurrency and US dollars. In this way the money trail could not be traced.
This entire racket came to light when Mumbai A senior citizen lodged a complaint at KR K Marg police station. He told that some people, posing as government officials, arrested him digitally through audio and video calls. After this, they threatened him and extorted Rs 70 lakh. Police registered a case and started investigation, the network of fraud reached Gujarat.
Mumbai Police team conducted raids in Mehsana and Ahmedabad and arrested six accused. The accused have been identified as Sureshkumar Maganlal Patel (51), Musran Iqbalbhai Kumbhar (30), Chirag Mahesh Chaudhary (29), Ankit Kumar Maheshbhai Shah (40), Vasudev alias Vivaan Waljibhai Barot (27) and Yuvraj alias Marco alias Laxman Singh Sikarwar (34).
According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 4) Ragasudha R, the leader of the gang was Yuvraj, who was in direct contact with the international accused. He was involved in cyber fraud for the last three years. He used to get 3 percent commission on every fraud. He also trapped local businessmen who had current accounts in banks and got the fraudulent money transferred from their accounts. Gave a nominal commission in return.
The investigation also revealed that this gang was also involved in a high-profile digital fraud in which Rs 58 crore was recovered by keeping a 72-year-old businessman and his wife under ‘digital arrest’ for two months. The accused kept threatening the businessman by posing as officers of CBI, ED and NIA. He even claimed that the businessman’s name has come up in the investigation of the Pahalgam terror attack.
The digital data recovered from this gang also revealed that the accused had committed fraud in at least 31 cases across the country. These cases are registered in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Agra, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Telangana, Gujarat, Delhi, Haryana, Kerala and West Bengal. During the investigation by Mumbai Police, so far 15 bank accounts have been seized and about Rs 10.5 lakh have been frozen.
Preliminary investigation also revealed that masterminds sitting abroad used to send APK files to the victims. As soon as these files were downloaded, the cyber thugs had complete control over the victim’s phone. They used his personal information and device access to create mental pressure to defraud him. The Cyber Cell of Maharashtra Police has now taken over the investigation.
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