Digital arrest: Odisha Crime Branch arrests two persons from Tamil Nadu & Kerala

Bhubaneswar: The Cyber Crime Unit of the Odisha Crime Branch arrested two persons from Tamil Nadu and Kerala in a digital arrest case.

The Cyber Crime Unit arrested one Satish Kumar K from Chennai and Harish C M from Kozhikode for allegedly cheating Rs 1.06 crore from a senior scientist in Bhubaneswar.

Out of the total Rs. 1.06 crores that was cheated, Rs 68 lakhs were transferred to the bank account of Satish Kumar and Rs. 30 lakhs to Harish C M. This case was registered on the complaint of a senior scientist from Bhubaneswar.

According to the complaint registered on August 9, he received a call from an unknown mobile number and the person on the other side claimed that he was from DHL Couriers. He told him that using his name and Aadhar number, 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. It has been retained by Customs Department who has sent it to Narcotics Department for registration of FIR and he needs to talk to Mumbai Crime Branch urgently.

Immediately after that, he received an international call about same matter. After a while, the call was shifted to a video call with a whatsapp number, which was showing as Mumbai Crime Branch.

In the video call, a person wearing police dress was seen discussing with a DCP and telling the staff to stop FIR against him as 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 NoC. They were issuing letters from CBI, RBI etc and telling him to read loudly.

They told him that there are serious allegations and found 4 illegal accounts opened using his Aadhar number at UP, Maharasthra, Karnataka and Bihar which were being used for money laundering during in election time by Nawab Mallik and Dawood Ibrahim group. Hence, he cannot be out of surveillance till the investigation is over.

On 14th August at about 09.30 AM, they issued a letter that he has to deposit the money in govt account of RBI controlled by Mumbai Crime Branch. It will verify whether his account linked to any illegal account and money will be retuned in 23 minutes. So, they told him to go to bank, keeping mobile in his pocket. They sent an account no. and he transferred Rs 68 lakhs to that account which belonged to Satish Kumar from Chennai.

Thereafter, they told him to transfer money to another bank after some time so that the money would be reverted back to his account, hence, he did RTGS of Rs 8,82,000. Then they told him to return back without discussing with anyone. Thereafter they showed him a letter saying that around Rs. 31 lakhs were used by money launderers for converting black money into white. Finally, they told him to transfer another Rs.30 lakhs and then only they can issue NOC.

In this way, the fraudsters duped him of Rs 1,06,82,000 into three banks in three transactions between 9th -14th August, 2024.

The Cyber Crime Unit of the Crime Branch, after reviewing the money trail identified that majority of the money in this case had gone to two accounts which were located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu and Kozhikode, Kerala.

The Crime Branch team successfully identified the accused persons and two teams proceeded to Chennai & Kerala and arrested these two accused persons who are the first layer account holders, wherein most of the amount cheated from the victim was transferred.

One of the accused person Satish Kumar K was previously arrested in Chennai, Avadi Cyber Crime PS, which was also of same digital arrest modus operandi and the fraud amount involved was Rs.1.9 Crore (approx.). On verification in the NCR Portal, there are 22 other complaints against the bank current account of Satish Kumar K in different states throughout the country and 6 complaints against the current account of Haris C M. The accused Satish Kumar K has been forwarded to SDJM court Bhubaneswar today and has been remanded to judicial custody.

Haris C M is being brought on transit remand from Kerala and after reaching Odisha he would be produced today at SDJM Court, Bhubaneswar. Previously in this case, Crime Branch had arrested three accused persons from Hanumangarh of Rajasthan, Surat City of Gujarat and Kerala and they are still in judicial custody.