New Delhi: The CBI has arrested two more people in a ₹11.42-crore “digital arrest” case in Gujarat after coordinated searches at 22 locations across 10 states under Operation Chakra-VI, officials said on Sunday.
The accused, Himanshu Prasad and Unis Biswas, allegedly used the bank account of Hexaquest Global Pvt Ltd to receive ₹2.5 crore of the money defrauded from the victim.
They also allegedly transferred funds to multiple accounts belonging to accomplices to obscure the money trail, officials said.
According to the agency, the two were involved in using bank accounts and installing Android Package Kit files to siphon off proceeds from “digital arrest” frauds and other cybercrimes.
“Several incriminating chats, messages and documents have also been recovered from the digital devices seized from their possession.
Efforts are underway to identify and apprehend the remaining members of the network,” the agency said in a statement.
In “digital arrest” scams, criminals impersonate law enforcement or government officials, use threats to keep victims under online surveillance and coerce them into transferring money.
In the Gujarat case, the CBI alleged that cybercriminals posing as police officers and officials of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India kept the victim under “digital arrest” for three months.
The victim was allegedly coerced into transferring ₹11.42 crore to accounts controlled by the syndicate, a CBI spokesperson said.
The searches followed a detailed financial and technical analysis of the money trail.
The spokesperson said banking documents, account records, digital devices and other evidence had been seized.
The seized material is being examined forensically to trace the wider financial and technological infrastructure supporting syndicates operating across state boundaries, the agency said.
The CBI said the Supreme Court, taking note of the scale of “digital arrest” crimes, had directed it to take concerted action against the perpetrators and networks facilitating such offences.
In four such cases, the agency said it had searched 142 locations across 22 states over the past 30 days and arrested 17 people.
The operations aimed to trace the proceeds of crime, identify beneficiaries and handlers, and secure evidence before it could be destroyed, it said.
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