New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as part of an ongoing Operation CHAKRA-III took action against a sophisticated cyber-enabled financial crime network which was operating across multiple countries, the central probe agency said on Friday.
According to CBI officials, the operation was executed with cooperation from other international law enforcement agencies including the FBI (USA) and INTERPOL. Acting against the crime network, searches were conducted at seven locations across Delhi, Gurugram and Noida.
It was revealed that transnational cyber-enabled financial crimes in this network were being coordinated across distributed centres mainly directed from a call centre operating from DLF Cyber City of Gurugram. Around 43 accused have been arrested as of now, the officials said.
The International Operations Division of CBI registered a case on July 22, 2024, for offences under Section 120B read with Sections 420, 467, 468, and 471 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000. During the searches, live cybercriminal operations were allegedly intercepted and substantial incriminating evidence was gathered.
Investigation teams have so far recovered 130 computer hard disks, 65 mobile phones, five laptops, incriminating documents, financial transaction details, call recordings, victim details, and transcripts used for targeting victims, the probe agency said in a statement. Victims were contacted by impersonation and induced to click on pop-ups for download of malicious software onto their systems and subsequently induced to make payments for the restoration of their system. It is revealed that proceeds of crime were channelised from multiple countries to Hong Kong, the CBI officials pointed out.
CBI is coordinating with FBI and law enforcement agencies in multiple countries through INTERPOL for follow-up on leads. Around 43 accused have been arrested as of now.
