Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Two men from Gujarat were arrested for duping an elderly man of Rs 40.70 lakh through digital arrest, crime branch officials said on Wednesday. The accused had told that his bank account was used in a financial fraud in Mumbai . It was obviously a false information.
Additional DCP (crime) Rajesh Dandotiya said that on the instruction of Commissioner of Police Santosh Kumar Singh, a team constituted to arrest the accused putting the victims under digital arrest started its investigation and traced the accused to Gujarat and arrested Himmat Bhai Patel, a resident of Surat and Atul Giri of Kutch. The accused have allegedly confessed to providing a bank account to other accused to receive money from online frauds. They are being questioned for other accused and other evidence is being gathered by the crime branch officials.
A 71-year-old victim had lodged a complaint a few days ago that he had received a call from an unidentified number and the caller informed that he is a police officer from Bandra police station in Mumbai. He told the victim that a bank account of a nationalised bank in Mumbai was used for transaction of Rs 2.60 crore for which he received the commission which is illegal. The accused further threatened that the CBI would arrest him.
When the complainant denied having any such bank account the accused informed that the bank manager was arrested for the fraud and some forged passbooks were recovered from him including a passbook with his name on it. The complainant got scared and thereafter the accused assured him that a CBI officer named Akash Kulkarni could get his name cleared if he is truly innocent and added a person who posed as Akash Kulkarni, a CBI officer, to the ongoing call.
Kulkarni sought the bank account information from the complainant and told him to transfer all amount in his bank account to a RBI account pending investigation. He assured that after verification, the entire amount would be returned to him within an hour. The complainant informed the crime branch officials that he got scared of and transferred the amount after dissolving his deposit. He transferred Rs 40.70 lakh to the bank accounts provided by the conmen.
Modus operandi of digital arrest scamsters
The phone rings and your ordeal begins. You are accosted by a person who in an official voice lets you know that a courier sent by you contained drugs or that your name has surfaced in an investigation related to drug supply, money laundering, human trafficking or any other serious illegal activity. He goes on to mention that your Aadhaar card or PAN card has been used for these activities and you are being booked and arrested for these crimes and you must report to a distant police station to join the investigation.
This chilling news puts you off track and that is when the caller sympathises with you and says that to alleviate your suffering you will be placed under digital arrest while the officials review your documents online. Even as you are contemplating what hit you and what to do next the voice from the other end cautions you not to inform anyone as this is a matter of national security and you are well and truly in the grip of cybercriminals.
