Bhubaneswar: The Crime Branch of the Odisha Police arrested one person from Chennai and another one from Kozhikode for defrauding a Bhubaneswar-based Senior Scientist of ₹1.06 Crore through digital arrest scam. 

In a statement, the CID-Crime Branch mentioned the Cyber Crime Unit arrested Satish Kumar K from Chennai and Harish C M from Kozhikode committing the fraud. Out of the total cheated amounts, ₹68 lakh were transferred to the bank account of Satish Kumar and ₹30 lakh to Harish C M.

As per the complaint of the Senior Scientist, he received a call from an unknown mobile number on August 9, 2024. Impersonating himself as an employee of DHL Couriers, the caller told the Senior Scientist that with the mention of the complainant’s name and Aadhar number, a parcel was sent to Japan containing five passports, three credit cards, 200 gm MDMA (drugs), four kg cloth, one laptop and ₹35,000. 

The caller further told the complainant that the parcel was retained by the Customs Department who sent it to the Narcotics Department for registration of an FIR. The caller asked the Senior Scientist to talk to the Mumbai Crime Branch urgently. 

Within few minutes, the complainant received an international call about same matter. After a while, the call was shifted to a video call with a WhatsApp no., which was showing as Mumbai Crime Branch. In the video call, a person wearing police dress was seen discussing with a DCP and telling the staff to stop FIR against the Senior Scientist as he is a Government Officer.

The complainant was made to believe that the fraudsters have all the personal information about him. They told him not to disconnect the call till the investigation is over. They also shared names and photos of various Senior Officers who were investigated and issued NoC. They were issuing letters from CBI, RBI etc and telling him to read loudly. Moreover, the fraudsters told him that there were serious allegations and they found four illegal accounts opened using the complainant’s Aadhar number in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Bihar. The illegal accounts were being used for money laundering during in election time by Nawab Mallik and Dawood Ibrahim group. Hence, he cannot be out of surveillance till the investigation is over, the fraudsters told the complainant over the video call.

On August 14 at about 9.30 AM, the fraudsters issued a letter asking the complainant to deposit the money in Govt account of RBI controlled by Mumbai Crime Branch. It will be verified whether his account is linked to any illegal account. The transferred money will be retuned in 23 minutes, the fraudsters said. 
They also told the complainant to go to bank, keeping mobile in his pocket. They sent an account number. Accordingly, the Senior Scientist transferred ₹68 lakh to the account provided by them. The account belonged to Satish Kumar from Chennai. 

Thereafter, they told him to transfer money to another bank after some time so that the money would be reverted back to his account, hence, he did RTGS of ₹8,82,000. Then they told him to return back without discussing with anyone. 

The fraudsters then showed him a letter saying that around ₹31 lakh were used by money launderers for converting black money into white. Finally, they told him to transfer another ₹30 lakh and then only they can issue NOC. In this way, the fraudsters duped him of ₹1,06,82,000 and got the money transferred into three banks in three transactions between August 9 and 14, 2024.

A case No.47/2024 dtd. 20.08.2024 u/s 318(4)/ 319(2)/ 336(2)/ 336(3)/ 338/ 340(2)/ 61(2)/ 3(5) BNS r/w Sec. 66-C/ 66-D of Information Technology Act, 2000 was registered at the Cyber Police Station. The Cyber Crime Unit after reviewing the money trail identified that majority of the money in this case had gone to two accounts which were located in Chennai and Kozhikode. 

The Crime Branch team successfully identified the accused and two teams proceeded to Chennai and Kerala and arrested these two accused who are the first layer account holders, wherein most of the amount cheated from the victim was transferred.

Also read: Mother-son duo held from Ghaziabad in ₹1.37-Cr digital arrest scam in Odisha

One of the accused Satish Kumar K was previously arrested in Chennai, Avadi Cyber Crime PS, Case No.299/2024 which was also of same digital arrest Modus operandi and the fraud amount involved was approximately ₹1.9 Crore. On verification in the NCR Portal, there are 22 other complaints pending against the bank current account of Satish Kumar K in different states throughout the country and six complaints against the current account of Haris C M.

Satish Kumar K has been forwarded to the SDJM Court Bhubaneswar today and has been remanded to judicial custody. Haris C M is being brought on transit remand from Kerala and after reaching Odisha he would be produced today at the SDJM Court, Bhubaneswar.

Earlier, in this case, the Crime Branch arrested three accused from Hanumangarh of Rajasthan, Surat City of Gujarat and Kerala. They are still in judicial custody. 

Investigation into the case is under progress.