Bapatla: Andhra Pradesh's Bapatla district police on Friday busted a gang of inter-state cyber fraudsters, who duped businessmen and retired officials by threatening them with 'digital arrest', and arrested two of its members from Rajasthan's Jodhpur district. Search is on for two other members in Mumbai, police said.
Bapatla SP Tushar Doody said two cyber fraudsters, Ramesh and Shravankumar, were held on charges of duping the complainant of Rs 74 lakh by accusing him of involvement in a money laundering case. After arresting them in Jodhpur, the duo was brought to Bapatla for interrogation, Doody said.
"The gang committed fraud of Rs 10 crore across 18 states. This is the first such arrest, marking a significant step forward in addressing cybercrime of this nature," the SP added.
According to the police, gang members, Akash Kulhari and Shivprasad, along with the arrested accused, used to contact retired employees, officials and businessmen, posing as CBI and ED officials. They intimidated victims with digital arrest in connection with false money laundering cases.
On December 1, the gang contacted Vishrantha Acharya Gondi Lakshmivaraprasad Rao from Chundur Mandal in Bapatla and informed him that a money laundering case had been registered against him. They had collected Rs 74 lakh in multiple installments from the victim. Finally realising that he had been duped, Lakshmivaraprasada Rao lodged a complaint at the Chundur police station on December 3. The investigation, supervised by Chundur CI Srinivasa Rao and IT Core SSI Naib Rasul, led to freezing Rs 17.90 lakh in the accused’s bank accounts.
In the investigation that followed, police traced the fraudsters to Rajasthan and Mumbai, sending special teams to nab them. The team in Rajasthan arrested Ramesh and Shravankumar, recovering Rs 2 and 5 lakh from them respectively. Also 24 ATM cards, 11 checkbooks and four mobile phones were seized from their possession.
Another team is currently searching the two other accused in Maharashtra.
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