2 nabbed for duping resident of Rs 3.41 crore in digital arrest fraud

The UT cybercrime police have arrested two accused for duping a city resident of Rs 3.41 crore in a digital arrest fraud.

The accused have been identified as Mahak Yadav (25), a resident of Shaharpur, Haryana; and Sachin Sharma, alias Monu (23), of Mandri, Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan. Col Dilip Singh Bajwa (retd) of Sector 2-A had reported that he was kept on prolonged video calls by the fraudsters. They told him that his bank account was involved in a Rs 2 crore money-laundering case linked to jailed businessman Naresh Goyal.

The scammers, posing as officials, showed the 82-year-old resident a fake Supreme Court arrest order and demanded urgent transfer of funds to avoid legal action. The accused made the victim transfer Rs 8 lakh, Rs 60 lakh, Rs 80 lakh, Rs 88 lakh and Rs 1.05 crore into various accounts.

On April 5, the police arrested Mahak from Narnaul, who confessed to receiving Rs 1.05 crore in his account and collecting Rs 1.2 lakh as commission. Subsequent investigation led to the arrest of Sachin from Jaipur on April 7. Two mobile phones were seized from them for forensic analysis.

Chandigarh