Retired govt official duped of 48 lakh in digital arrest scam

New Delhi: A retired govt official was "digitally arrested" for 20 hours by scammers posing as law enforcement officers and duped of Rs 48 lakh. He was falsely accused of being involved in money laundering and threatened that people had been deployed to kill him if he disobeyed them. He was also warned not to share the incident with anyone.
Police have arrested three people, including an MBA graduate, who were linked to Chinese scammers and involved in over 20 similar cases. The accused have been identified as Thunga Rajkumar, Kapil Rambhau Patil and Pushkar Chanderkant Pakhale, residents of Telangana and Maharashtra.
On March 2, Baliram received a WhatsApp call from someone posing as a TRAI official, claiming a 2002 PMLA case was registered against him at Mumbai's Colaba police station. A video call followed from a fake sub-inspector, who claimed Baliram's Aadhaar card was used to open a fraudulent account with Rs 320 crore deposited. The scammers even posed as a CBI officer and even a judge, showing fake legal documents.
The victim was kept on a video call for nearly 20 hours, and was coerced into liquidating his PPF, FDs and transferring over Rs 48 lakh to the accounts provided by the fraudsters. After three days of the "digital arrest", Baliram reported the incident to 1930 cybercrime helpline.
Police traced the IP addresses to Hong Kong. The money trail led to a bank account, where two transactions totalling Rs 33.9 lakh were found in an account held by a firm in Visakhapatnam. An additional Rs 1.15 crore was also credited to the same account, which had several complaints on the cybercrime portal against it. Another account under the same company was also found.
A team tracked suspect Rajkumar to Hyderabad and arrested him. He admitted to operating fake accounts for commission. Further investigation revealed another shell company operated by Kapil and Arjun Avinash Patil from Jalgaon, Maharashtra to channel funds from cybercrime victims. DCP (southwest) Surendra Choudhary confirmed Kapil was arrested. Pakhale was later arrested from Chalisgaon, Maharashtra. "He would recruit people from nearby areas to open shell companies and multiple bank accounts for fund rotation, offering them a cut in return," the DCP said.
The arrests were made by a team led by inspector Vikas Buldak.