78-year-old Delhi resident loses over Rs 2 crore to cyber frauds; interstate racket busted, 5 arrested

Five men were arrested from Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh by the Delhi Police’s Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit for allegedly running an interstate cyber fraud racket, officers said Thursday. The accused posed as officials of law enforcement agencies and placed people under ‘digital arrest’ to dupe them, police said.

The arrests come weeks after a complaint from a 78-year-old Delhi resident who was allegedly coerced into transferring over Rs 2.19 crore by people who claimed arrest warrants had been issued against him in a money laundering case. An e-FIR was registered on December 5 last year.

“The complainant allegedly received a call from a man who identified himself as Sumit Mishra from the Lucknow Police Headquarters. The caller told the complainant that two arrest warrants were issued against the latter in a money laundering case and placed him under ‘digital arrest’. Another man, who identified himself as Prem Kumar Gautam, called the complainant later, claiming that his Aadhaar card had been misused, and convinced him to share information about his assets,” said DCP (IFSO) Vinit Kumar.

“The complainant was allegedly told that he would be under ‘WhatsApp video surveillance round-the-clock’ and was instructed not to step out of his house or contact anyone. The accused showed an office on video call, claiming it to be that of the CBI. The complainant was allegedly forced to transfer Rs 2,19,18,000 to various accounts from November 26 to January 4,” said DCP Kumar.

During the investigation, the IFSO analysed bank records, digital trails and technical data. One of the accused, Dipesh Patidar (30) from Barwani in Madhya Pradesh, was identified as the holder of a bank account to which the complainant had transferred Rs 1 crore and was subsequently arrested, officers said. Another accused, Anshul Rathod ( 28) — also from Barwani — was arrested soon after, they said.

Further raids were conducted in Jabalpur, Indore, Prayagraj, Jhansi and Lucknow, leading to the arrest of three more accused — Shyam Babu Gupta (36), Raghvendra Verma (25), and Devesh Singh (25) — from a hotel in Lucknow, officers said. Police said they arranged mule bank accounts for layering the defrauded money through multiple transactions.

Investigators added that the accused would allegedly force their targets to transfer money into what they termed as “RBI-mandated accounts for verification purposes”, promising them refunds.

Police said rubber stamps of various firms, cheque books, seven mobile phones, 20 debit cards and copies of Aadhaar cards were recovered from the accused. Further investigation is underway, they added.