Gujarat police on Wednesday released the first sketches of the suspected masterminds of the ongoing digital arrest scam across the country, based on the description of the complainants from Surat city.
The Surat city police, which busted a cybercrime gang allegedly orchestrating digital arrests, shared the sketches with police in other states. The gang reportedly fleeced Rs 111 crore from at least 866 victims.
Surat Commissioner of Police Anupamsinh Gahlaut said the sketches had been prepared as per the description of victims in separate cases of digital arrest in Surat and are of the persons who had posed as officers on video calls to “digitally arrest” the victims.
Gahlaut said, “We have conducted an intensive investigation into the digital arrest scams since the last few months and arrested four persons while nine are wanted in the cases… The reason is that the masterminds of these kinds of scams usually escape while the others in the rung are arrested. They create a scene in the backdrop, wear uniforms and make video calls to play on the fear of the people.”
Gahlaut said that investigation had revealed that 623 bank accounts across the country that were used for the crime have been discovered and found to be linked to the same gang that has been busted by the Surat police.
Transactions to the tune of over Rs 111 crore were made by blackmailing unsuspecting victims to transfer “penalty” money by posing as officers of various agencies, Gahlaut said.
“We have also come across NCCRP (National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal) data that 866 complaints have been filed against the same accused across the country, out of which, 200 have been turned into FIRs in different states. We have requested our counterparts in other states to also verify the sketches with their victims so that the accused can be apprehended soon. The release of sketches will also create awareness and save unsuspecting persons from falling into the trap.”
The maximum FIRs have been lodged in Karnataka and Telangana at 51 each, followed by Maharashtra at 41 FIRs. Maharashtra has also reported the maximum complaints by victims of digital arrest, at 171.
According to the police, the accused were in contact with a Dubai-based Chinese cyber mafia as well as cyber rackets based in other countries with the digital arrest modus operandi. “They also used to carry out task fraud, job fraud and various forms of investment frauds to lure unsuspecting victims on social media,” said police.
