Tirupati police bust cybercrime gang involved in digital arrest scams
Tirupati: The Tirupati district police have dismantled a cybercrime gang that deceived individuals by posing as officials conducting “digital arrests.” Police arrested six suspects and seized Rs.32.5 lakh in cash, 141 grams of gold worth approximately Rs.10 lakh, eight mobile phones, two laptops, one SIM module and eight routers from their possession. Additionally, Rs.10 lakh from one of the accused’s bank accounts was frozen.
The suspects have been identified as Singampalli Ganesh, 34, Palakollu Ravikumar, 28, Yulli Jagadeesh, 37, Penki Anand Santosh Kumar, 39, Utta Amar Anand, 33 and Karri Vasudev, 34. Last week, the police had arrested Arun Vinay Kumar from Rajamahendravaram in connection with the same case, seizing Rs.24.5 lakh in cash, 16 grams of gold and freezing Rs.26 lakh in his bank account.
The gang targeted both high-profile individuals and ordinary citizens, extorting large sums of money through fraudulent activities. So far, the police have recovered Rs,57 lakh in cash and gold and frozen Rs.36 lakh linked to fraudulent transactions in this case.
Superintendent of Police V. Harshavardhan Raju revealed that the gang’s modus operandi involved contacting victims via WhatsApp, impersonating as officials from the Mumbai Crime Branch or Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). They would falsely accuse victims of involvement in money laundering or drug-related cases, coercing them into transferring money to resolve the fabricated charges.
In this case, a 65-year-old woman from Tirupati was duped into transferring Rs.2.5 crore after being falsely implicated in a Rs.200 crore money laundering case. She reported the scam to the police on January 13. A special task force tracked the gang’s operations to Visakhapatnam, where they discovered that the suspects had undergone cybercrime training in Cambodia.
The SP commended the efforts of the investigation team, led by Tirupati West circle inspector Murali Mohan and cybercrime circle inspector Vinod Kumar.
