Bapatla Superintendent of Police Tushar Dudi showing the seized money, bank ATM cards and gadgets at a press conference on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: T. VIJAY KUMAR
The Bapatla district police on Thursday cracked a cyber fraud of ₹74 lakh registered at Tsundur police station and arrested two persons from Rajasthan in connection with the case. The police also recovered ₹7 lakh, 24 ATM cards, 11 chequebooks, and four mobile phones from the accused.
Bapatla Superintendent of Police Tushar Dudi said that they busted a nationwide network of cyber frauds involving more than ₹10 crore in 43 cases across 18 States.
On December 3, 2024, retired professor Gondhi Sri Lakshmi Varaprasad Rao filed a police complaint alleging extortion through a fake ‘digital arrest’ by fraudsters. In digital arrest cases, the perpetrators posing as police officials threaten their victims over phones and try to dupe them of money.
‘Digital arrest’
As per law, there is no such concept of digital arrest, Mr. Tushar Dudi said, while explaining about the innovative methods being used by the criminals to cheat people.
In this case, the accused threatened Mr. Varaprasad Rao that he was involved in a money laundering case. They convinced and made Mr. Varaprasad Rao transfer ₹74.13 lakh to five fraudulent accounts, the SP said.
Acting on the complaint, the technical team of Bapatla police froze ₹17.90 lakh in these accounts. Special teams were dispatched to Rajasthan and Mumbai, resulting in the arrest of B. Ramesh (A3) and Shrawan Kumar (A4), both hailing from Jodhpur in Rajasthan.
Investigations revealed that Ramesh and Shrawan Kumar were involved in 13 cybercrime cases related to frauds of ₹50 lakh registered in 12 police stations across eight States.
Mr. Tushar Dudi urged the people not to fall prey to cybercrime like ‘digital arrest’ and to report cybercrimes through the helpline 1930.
He praised the district police and IT core team for their swift action.
Published – January 03, 2025 05:39 am IST
