Bhubaneswar: The cyber crime unit of Odisha Crime Branch (CB) has arrested two persons from Tamil Nadu & Kerala in another digital arrest fraud case.
The accused have been identified as Satish Kumar K from Chennai and Harish C M from Kozhikode. They were nabbed on the basis of a complaint lodged by a senior scientist from Bhubaneswar, who was allegedly duped of Rs 1,06 crore.
The came on the heels of arrest of a mother-son duo from Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad for allegedly duping a senior citizen of Rs 1.37 crore in a similar manner.
According to police sources, 68 lakh and Rs 30 lakh of the total Rs 1.06 crore were transferred to the bank account of Satish and Harish.
On August 9, the senior scientist received a call from an unknown number. The caller claimed that he was from DHL courier and using his name and Aadhaar number, informed that a parcel was sent to Japan containing 5 passports, 3 credit cards, 200 gm MDMA (drugs), 4 kg cloth, one laptop and Rs.35,000. He added that it has been retained by Customs Department, which sent it to Narcotics Department for registration of FIR and he needs to talk to Mumbai Crime Branch urgently.
Immediately after that, the victim received an international call on WhatsApp purportedly from Mumbai Crime Branch. In the video call, a person in police uniform was seen discussing with a DCP and telling the staff to stop FIR against him since he is a government officer. He was made to believe that they have all the personal information about him. They told him not to disconnect the call till the investigation is over. They also shared names and photos of various senior officers, who were investigated and issued NOCs. They also shared letters from CBI, RBI and asked him to read those loudly. They informed him about 4 illegal accounts being opened using his Aadhaar number at UP, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Bihar and used for money laundering during elections by Nawab Mallik and Dawood Ibrahim groups.
At around 9.30 am on August 14, they issued a letter stating that he has to deposit the money in government account of RBI controlled by Mumbai Crime Branch. Whether his account is linked to any illegal account will be verified and the money will be retuned in 23 minutes. He was then sent an account no and asked to transfer Rs 68 lakh to that account, which belonged to Satish Kumar from Chennai. Thereafter, they told him to transfer money to another bank so that the money would be reverted back to his account. Following which, he did RTGS of Rs 8,82,000. “Then they told him to return back without discussing the matter with anyone. Thereafter they showed him a letter saying that around Rs 31 lakh were used by money launderers for converting black money into white. Finally, they told him to transfer another Rs 30 lakh for issuing an NOC,” the release added.
In this way, the fraudsters duped him of Rs 1,06,82,000 in three bank transactions between August 9-14.
After reviewing the money trail, the CB found that majority of the amount was transferred to two accounts in Chennai, Tamil Nadu and Kozhikode, Kerala. The accused were identified and two teams proceeded to Chennai & Kerala to arrest them.
“Satish was previously arrested in Chennai by Avadi Cyber Crime police station in a digital arrest fraud Rs 1.9 crore. There are 22 other complaints against the bank current account of Satishin different states throughout the country and 6 complaints against the current account of Haris,” police said.
Satish was remanded to judicial custody after being produced before SDJM court Bhubaneswar on Tuesday while Harish is being brought to Odisha on a transit remand.
Previously in this case, Crime Branch had arrested three persons from Hanumangarh of Rajasthan, Surat City of Gujarat and Kerala and they are in judicial custody.
Further investigation is underway, it added.
