New Delhi: The CBI conducted searches at 89 locations across 20 states, resulting in the arrest of three individuals in connection with three separate cases related to digital arrest scams in which victims lost over ₹ 42 crore, officials said Friday.
After concluding its countrywide operation, the agency said it recovered banking documents, account-related records, digital devices, and other crucial evidence, which are now being forensically examined to unravel the 'wider financial and technological infrastructure' sustaining the digital arrest syndicates operating across states.
"CBI arrested 3 accused persons, whose examination during the searches brought out their specific and material role in receiving, layering and dispersing the fraud proceeds," agency spokesperson Beena Yadav said in a statement.
Those arrested include Akash, a resident of Haryana, who is alleged to have received ₹ 1.95 crore of the defrauded amount into his account. He opened the account himself and ensured its swift transfer to other accounts on the same day, establishing his direct and knowing role in laundering the proceeds, the officials said.
The other accused is Raja Karmakar of Kolkata. He allegedly received ₹ 1.5 crore of the fraud proceeds into his firm's account, while the third accused, Jyoti Rani, into whose account part of the defrauded sum was credited, withdrew part of it in cash and transferred the remaining to other accounts, thereby actively participating in dispersing the money to obscure its trail, they said.
The first case took place at BITS-Pilani, where a victim was held in digital arrest for three months and defrauded of ₹ 7.67 crore by scammers posing police officers.
"In another case, the scammers digitally arrested a victim for 3 months in Gujarat and defrauded ₹ 19.24 crore by impersonating police officers. The third case pertains to Karnataka, in which a victim was digitally arrested for a month and defrauded of ₹ 15.45 crore," the spokesperson said.