Eight including aspiring CA Arrested After Delhi Couple Scammed of Rs 14.8 Crore in Digital Fraud

Police are investigating one of India’s affecting “digital arrest” scams. In this fraud, scammers tricked people into giving them money by pretending they were in trouble with the law.

So far, eight people have been arrested for cheating a couple in Delhi’s upscale Greater Kailash area out of Rs 14.8 crore.

The arrested scammers are well-educated men from different parts of India. They used their knowledge of technology and the internet to target mostly older people, who were easier to fool.

Police said these men didn’t act alone. They connected through secret social media groups and took instructions from handlers based in Cambodia and Nepal. This shows the scam was planned and controlled across countries.

The police from the national capital arrested eight men in three different states between January 15 and 21. The group included a mix of people: an aspiring Chartered Accountant (CA) who also ran an NGO, someone with an IT diploma who studied in New Zealand, a priest from Varanasi, an MBA graduate, and a private tutor.

The first person arrested was Divyang Patel, 30, a BCom graduate who had passed his CA Intermediate. He ran an NGO called Floresta Foundation and a business advisory firm. But the NGO was fake; it didn’t do real charitable work and was instead used to move illegal money. Along with him, Krutik Shitole, 26, who had an IT diploma from New Zealand, was also arrested. Both were caught in Gujarat on January 15.

Arun Kumar Tiwari, 45, who has a BA degree and works as a private data-entry operator, was picked up from Uttar Pradesh the next day. On January 19, the Delhi police arrested 27-year-old Mahavir Sharma, who has a BCom degree. The day after that, they arrested Pradyuman Tiwari, a priest from Varanasi who does religious rituals for people (Hindus).

The last three people were arrested on January 21. They include Ankit Mishra, a commerce graduate who used to work in sales; Bhupender Kumar Mishra, 37, who has an MBA and works a private job; and Aadesh Kumar Singh, 36, who gives private tuition and coaching, though his education isn’t clear yet. These arrests happened in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Odisha.

These men are not the only ones involved in this group. Investigators say the men acted as helpers, using “mule” accounts to move stolen money following instructions from an international criminal group.

Om Taneja, 81, and his wife Indira, 77, went through what police called one of the most shocking cases involving digital fraud in recent times. The couple, who had come back from the United States in 2016, were watched nonstop on video for over two weeks. Their case started in December when Indira got a phone call saying their number would be cut off because of “obscene calls.”

She said that she was connected to a man on a video call who was dressed like a police officer. In the background, there were banners that said “Colaba Police,” which made it look real.

The fraudsters told her that her bank account was involved in a big money laundering case. When she explained that her husband had just had surgery and couldn’t travel to Mumbai because he needed a walker, they offered a “digital verification at home” instead.

For more than two weeks, the couple was stuck in their Greater Kailash home. Scammers kept a close watch on them through nonstop video calls and threatened them with serious trouble if they didn’t follow instructions. The fraudsters tricked them into moving money from their fixed deposits into accounts the scammers claimed were “RBI-mandated” for verification, making them do this through eight separate transactions.

By January 9, the calls suddenly stopped. They went to the local police only to realize that by that time, Rs 14.8 crore had already disappeared.

During the police operation, authorities seized seven mobile phones and some cheque books. The investigation is still ongoing to find the other people involved in the network.

Supreme Court Raises Concern

The Supreme Court has taken suo motu cognizance of what it described as a national crisis. A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said they are shocked that scammers have stolen nearly Rs 3,000 crore in recent years using “digital arrest” scams.

These scams trick people by calling them and pretending there is a legal problem or court case. The court expressed surprise that even well-educated older people often panic and follow the scammers’ instructions.

Some of the recent scams are very sophisticated. They use AI to create fake videos or voices of judges and officials. In some cases, scammers even set up fake “digital courtrooms” with actors pretending to play different roles to make the scam seem real.

The court is concerned about how easily people are being fooled and the huge amount of money being lost.