Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi
New Delhi, Sep 6: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested five more accused allegedly involved in receiving, layering and dispersing fraud proceeds running into crores of rupees as part of its nationwide crackdown on digital arrest crimes under Operation Chakra-VI, an official said on Sunday.
The latest arrests follow coordinated searches recently conducted at 89 locations across 20 states in connection with three major digital arrest cases reported in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Karnataka, the CBI said in a statement.
With the fresh arrests, the total number of people apprehended in the three cases has risen to eight. Efforts are underway to identify and arrest other members of the wider network, the agency said.
The five accused were identified as Sanket Bastwar, Pankaj Damade, Arif alias King Bhai, Harish Purushottam Yadav alias Harry and Shashank Singh alias Ravi.
According to the CBI, Sanket Bastwar and Pankaj Damade, both residents of Itarsi in Madhya Pradesh, allegedly obtained a bank account through deceit, received digital arrest proceeds into it and helped disperse the money to conceal its trail.
Arif alias King Bhai and Harish Purushottam Yadav alias Harry, both from New Delhi, and Shashank Singh alias Ravi of Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, allegedly arranged the bank account used to receive money from the digital arrest victim and subsequently layered the proceeds through multiple accounts.
The CBI said Arif, Harish and Shashank also installed a malicious APK file on the account holder’s mobile phone. The software allegedly intercepted bank SMS alerts, allowing them to covertly operate the account.
The investigation is now uncovering the organised network to which the accused allegedly belonged and the manner in which the fraud proceeds were moved through different accounts, the agency said.
The arrests came after the CBI mounted a major offensive against syndicates involved in digital arrest crimes, conducting searches at 89 locations across 20 states in three cases following directions from the Supreme Court.
The apex court had taken serious note of the growing scale of such crimes and directed the CBI to take decisive action against the perpetrators and networks facilitating them.
One of the three cases relates to **BITS Pilani**, where the victim was allegedly kept under digital arrest for three months and defrauded of **Rs 7.67 crore** by scammers posing as police officers, the CBI said.
In the Gujarat case, the victim was allegedly subjected to digital arrest for three months and defrauded of **Rs 19.24 crore**.
The Karnataka case involved a victim who was digitally arrested for a month and allegedly defrauded of **Rs 15.45 crore**, the agency said.
The earlier searches had resulted in the arrest of three accused — **Akash of Haryana**, who allegedly received Rs 1.95 crore of the defrauded money in an account he had opened and transferred it onward the same day; **Raja Karmakar of Kolkata**, whose firm’s account allegedly received Rs 1.5 crore of the fraud proceeds; and **Jyoti Rani**, who allegedly withdrew part of the money in cash and transferred the remaining amount onward.
The CBI said their arrests established their direct and knowing roles in laundering the proceeds of the digital arrest frauds.