Mumbai Cyber Police Arrest Six in Rs 1.12 Crore ‘Digital Arrest’ Scam Targeting 68-Year-Old Retired Businessman:

Mumbai Cyber Police have arrested six people for allegedly cheating a 68-year-old retired businessman of Rs 1.12 crore in a ‘digital arrest’ scam.

The accused have been identified as Tarik Momin, Rakesh Jain, Chintan Desai, Shakar Tyagi, G Gohel and Ajay Sharma.

According to police, Gohel is a web developer who holds a BE degree from IIT Delhi. He had also been booked in a cheating case in 2021. Tyagi works as an operations manager at a private bank.

The victim, who lives in Dahisar, was allegedly kept under ‘digital arrest’ at his home for nearly two weeks between July and August.

The fraudsters first contacted him pretending to be officials from the Department of Telecommunications. They told him that his Aadhaar details had been misused in a money laundering case registered in Delhi.

Later, one of the accused, using the name ‘Vijay Khanna’, contacted the victim through WhatsApp video calls. He appeared in a police uniform and showed fake documents carrying official logos and references to the Supreme Court.

The victim was allegedly threatened with the arrest of his family members and was ordered to share his location every two hours.

Under pressure, he withdrew money from his fixed deposits and transferred a total of Rs 1.12 crore into several bank accounts controlled by the gang.

The fraud was discovered when the victim’s daughter became suspicious and approached the cyber police.

During the investigation, Mumbai’s North Cyber Police traced the money to a bank account linked to a gold trading company.

Police said Momin handled the bank accounts used to receive the money. The registered SIM card of the company’s director, Rakesh Jain, was allegedly passed through Tyagi and Gohel to manage OTPs.

Another accused, Chintan Desai, allegedly travelled to Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh with a device linked to the accounts. Police said the stolen money was then withdrawn and transferred through different channels.

The investigation is continuing to trace the gang’s financial transactions and identify its other activities.

The case is being investigated by senior inspector Pramod Kamble and inspector Sunil Lokhande under the supervision of DCP Bajrang Bansode.