Daijiworld Media Network - Hyderabad
Hyderabad, Oct 12: In September, Hyderabad’s Cybercrime Police arrested 59 cybercriminals from across India and refunded Rs 86.64 lakh to victims, authorities said on Thursday.
The unit handled 320 complaints via the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal. From these, 222 FIRs were filed at the Cybercrime Police Station and 106 in zonal cyber cells across Hyderabad.
During coordinated operations, authorities detained suspects from eight states. Of them, 28 were implicated in investment fraud, 6 in digital arrest scams, 4 in part-time investment frauds, 2 in matrimonial fraud, 4 in credit card fraud, and 3 in movie piracy schemes.
These individuals were linked to 257 cases nationwide, including 74 in Telangana, 53 in Maharashtra, 38 in Karnataka, 15 in Gujarat, 12 in Delhi, 9 each in Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, 6 in Kerala, and several others spread across states.
Police seized 43 mobile phones, 9 cheque books, 8 bank passbooks, 23 ATM/debit cards, 4 laptops, 1 fake company stamp, and 21 SIM cards during the raids.
Of the Rs 86.64 lakh refunded:
• Rs 58.47 lac was for investment fraud
• Rs 13.00 lac for impersonation fraud
• Rs 12.43 lac for trading fraud
• Rs 5.21 lac for OTP fraud
• Rs 2.58 lac in credit card fraud
• Rs 3.34 lac in job fraud
• Rs 0.50 lac in APK (app-based) fraud
A key bust involved a movie piracy ring. Following a complaint from the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce, the Cybercrime Police arrested five people from Bihar, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh who had illegally distributed Telugu films Single and Hit online on their release day.
Additionally, two persons from Maharashtra were arrested in connection with a fatal digital arrest scam. The victim was a retired hospital employee in Malakpet, Hyderabad, who allegedly died of a heart attack after being harassed through WhatsApp by individuals impersonating police and government agencies. The accused had extorted Rs 6,60,543 from her pension account using fabricated documents, then continued to harass her even after her death.
Investigations are ongoing, and further arrests and recoveries are expected.