Delhi Police bust digital arrest syndicate, 5 held
Feb 07, 2025
New Delhi [India], February 7 : Delhi Police have busted a "Digital Arrest" scam, arresting five Indian operatives working for a Chinese company operating from Jhansi.
The accused impersonated law enforcement officers, threatening victims with arrest unless they transferred large sums of money, according to the police statement.
The arrests were made after an 81-year-old retired Army personnel, Gopal, complained with the Delhi Police.
Gopal had received a call from the scammers, claiming he was involved in a money laundering case and would be arrested unless he transferred Rs. 15 lakhs to a DBS bank account.
The investigation revealed that the scammers operated from Jhansi, opening multiple bank accounts in unsuspecting individuals' names.
The accused - Imran Qureshi, Asad Qureshi, Dev Sagar, Javed, and Abhishek Yadav - worked for a Chinese company, with Abhishek Yadav, the mastermind, arrested from Indore, Madhya Pradesh, said the police.
Abhishek Yadav was in contact with the Chinese company through Telegram and had supplied them with over a hundred bank accounts.
The Delhi Police recovered 11 smartphones, 6 ATMs, one laptop, and several bank account cheque books from the accused. Further investigation is underway to uncover the extent of the scam and other individuals' involvement.
This bust comes after the Directorate of Enforcement's (ED) Chennai zonal office arrested two people in connection with a similar "digital arrest" scam in January, where accused allegedly defrauded people using mule accounts and converted illicit cash into cryptocurrency.
ED had started investigating the alleged scam after a complaint by a senior citizen to Chennai Police, mentioning that the two scammers defrauded the person of Rs 33 Lakh.
"Both suspects played a key role in managing mule accounts, converting illicit cash into cryptocurrency, and transferring it overseas," read a statement by ED.
Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted the need to repeatedly make people understand that there is no provision named digital arrest in the government. This is completely false and a conspiracy to trap people, he said on the dangers of the rising cyber scam in which fraudsters impersonate law enforcement or government officials to intimidate victims and extort money.
