Bhubaneswar scientist falls prey to digital arrest, looses Rs 1 crore; 2 arrested

The cyber crime unit of the Odisha Crime Branch arrested two persons from Tamil Nadu and Kerala for allegedly extorting over Rs 1 crore from a senior scientist in Bhubaneswar.

The accused have been identified as Satish Kumar and Harish CM. While Satish was arrested from Chennai, Harish was nabbed from Kozhikode.

Out of the total Rs 1.06 crores that was cheated, Rs 68 lakh was transferred to the bank account of Satish Kumar and Rs 30 lakh to the bank account of Harish.

The Case

The victim, a senior scientist from Bhubaneswar lodged a complaint alleging to have received a call from an unknown mobile number and the person on the other side claimed that he was from DHL Couriers on August 9, 2024.

The caller told the scientist that a parcel was sent to Japan using his name and Aadhar number. In the parcel, 5 passports, 3 credit cards, 200 gm MDMA (drugs), 4 kg cloth, one laptop and Rs.35,000 was found and it was detained by the  Customs Department.
Subsequently, the victim was told that the parcel has been sent to the Narcotics Department for registration of FIR and he needs to talk to the Mumbai Crime Branch urgently. 

The Trap Begins...

The victim subsequently received an international call and it was shifted to a video call that showed as Mumbai Crime Branch.

In the video call, a person wearing a police uniform was seen discussing with a DCP and telling the staff to stop FIR against him as he is a Government officer.

The victim was made to believe that they have all the personal information about him. They told him not to disconnect the call till the investigation was over. 

The callers were reportedly issuing letters from CBI, RBI and telling the victim to read loudly. 

“The callers told the victim that there are serious allegations and found 4 illegal accounts opened using his Aadhaar number at Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Bihar which were being used for money laundering during election time by Nawab Mallik and Dawood Ibrahim group. Hence, he cannot be out of surveillance till the investigation is over,” the Crime Branch said in a release.

Loot of Rs 1 Crore

On August 14, the victim was asked for money in the government account of RBI controlled by the Mumbai Crime Branch. It will verify whether his account is linked to any illegal account and money will be returned in 23 minutes. 

“The victim transferred Rs 68 lakhs to the account which belonged to Satish Kumar from Chennai. Thereafter, he was asked to transfer money to another bank after some time so that the money would be reverted back to his account. The fraudsters showed the victim a letter saying that around Rs. 31 lakh were used by money launderers for converting black money into white. Finally, they told him to transfer another Rs.30 lakhs and then only they can issue NOC. In this way, the fraudsters duped him of Rs 1,06,82,000,” the Crime Branch said.

Shocking Revelations

One of the accused Satish Kumar K was previously arrested in Chennai in a similar digital arrest Modus operandi and the fraud amount involved was Rs.1.9 Crore (approx.).

On verification in the NCR Portal, there are 22 other complaints against the bank current account of Satish Kumar in different states across the country and 6 complaints against the current account of Haris. 

Earlier, the Crime Branch had arrested three accused persons from Hanumangarh of Rajasthan, Surat city in Gujarat and Kerala and they are still in judicial custody.