New Delhi, May 26 (IANS) The team of Cyber Police Station of Delhi Police have arrested three notorious cheats/fraudsters for digitally arresting elderly people and defrauding them of their money.

The three have been identified as Rahul Verma, a resident of Raipur, Chhattisgarh; Shantanu Richoriya, R/o Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh and Arjun Singh, R/o Village Saharanpur, UP. All three are aged around 25 years.

With their arrest, three smartphones, four SIM cards, Debit Cards, four passbooks and three cheque books of different banks were recovered from their possession.

The police officials in a press release on Monday said that a complaint of Mahender Jain, a resident of Raj Nagar, Palam Colony, was received through NCRP regarding digital arrest and duping of Rs 25 lakh by unknown fraudsters.

Later, he also gave a written complaint on April 10 at Police Station Cyber South West, Delhi, wherein he alleged that he received a video call on WhatsApp on March 21 from a person claiming to be Sanjay, a Police Inspector from the Crime Branch of Nashik Police.

The caller informed him that his Aadhaar card was being misused to create a fraudulent debit/credit card in Canara Bank. The caller showed a photocopy of the card and alleged that it was being used for money laundering by the owner of a big airline company. Caller, named Sanjay, threatened police action after which Jain deposited all his savings, fixed deposits, sold jewellery of his wife and transferred money to the alleged persons through PayTm and RTGS. He transferred approximately Rs 25 lakh.

After a preliminary enquiry, a case FIR No. 29/2025 u/s 318(2)/61(2)/3(5) BNS was registered at PS Cyber, South West district and the investigation was taken up.

The police said that keeping in view the gravity of the case, a team comprising Sub Inspector Chetan Rana, Head Constable Manender and HC Vijaypal was constituted under the supervision of Inspector Pravesh Kaushik, SHO/PS Cyber, South West, and under the overall supervision of Vijay Kumar, ACP/Ops, South West District.

The team was tasked to adopt a proper strategy, focusing on the crackdown on the syndicate of cheats involved in duping senior citizens by way of digital arrest.

Using technical surveillance, digital footprints, and analysis of money trail, the team identified the accused operating from different states. The suspects used WhatsApp with fake identities, conducted frauds from hotel rooms in Delhi, and dealt with mule account holders from across India who were brought in person to the hotels.

After sustained analysis, a raid was conducted in Paharganj, resulting in the arrest of three accused.

On interrogation, it was revealed that the accused Rahul first supplied his account to the accused persons. Later, seeing a profit, he started working on the nexus and started hiring/supplying accounts to the nexus.

The accused persons used to facilitate and handle the mule account holders in Delhi and contact international operators through WhatsApp to hoodwink the law enforcement agencies. The culprits would further transfer the duped money to those accounts. Secret groups were made on WhatsApp and operated through fake numbers.

So far, 7-8 mule accounts have been traced to them. The other accused persons have been identified, and raids are on to nab them, mentioned the media release issued from the office of DCP Surendra Choudhary.

–IANS

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