Rourkela: Odisha police arrested two youth from Rajasthan on charges of defrauding a person of Rs 23 lakh in name of digital arrest. 

The accused persons were identified as Mukesh Kumar Saini (21) and Harshit Sain (22) from Japiur district of Rajasthan. 

The accused duo posing as police officials of Mumbai Crime Branch and CBI allegedly extorted an amount of Rs 23 lakh from the victim in a space of few days. Even they threatened to assault the victim and his son. 

According to reports, Arun Kumar Mandal, a resident of Rourkela received a phone call from DHL courier service at about 11.30 AM on August 30, 2024 regarding return of parcel. When he denied about the consignment, the delivery boy said that his Aadhar card has been used in the parcel, which was sent from Mumbai to China having narcotics article. When the victim wanted to go to the local police station to report regarding misuse of his documents, the fraudster immidiately connected with one Mohit Handa and talked to Mandal posing as an official from Mumbai Crime Branch. 

The fraudsters talked to the person on a video call and demanded Rs 20 lakh for letting him free. The victim, who was under digital arrest, sent Rs 20 lakh to the accounts of the fraudsters and later deposited Rs 3 lakh for his clearance. 

Based on a complaint registered at the Cyber Crime & Economic Offence Police Station, Rourkela, on December 26, a police team comprising SI Aditya Narayan Behera, SI OM Prakash Routray and three others deputed to Rajasthan and arrested the accused persons. They produced the duo at ACJM Court of Chomu,Jaipur and brought them to Odisha on a transit remand for interrogation in the case. 

During investigation, police found that the duo was working as mule accounts and facilitating the fraud. The police busted the gang with arrest of two and seized one iPhone 12 with a Jio SIM. They were arrested under sections 318(4)/319(2)/336(2)/338 of BNS and Section 66-C/66-D of IT Act 2000. 

Police said that more number of persons were involved in the racket. They are yet to be arrested.