How Gujarat police used a live ‘digital arrest’ to trap cyber fraudster in Assam
On August 9, a senior citizen from Ahmedabad approached the Gujarat Police's Cyber Centre of Excellence (CCoE) after being allegedly under "digital arrest" for over a week. The senior citizen had received fake summons letters purportedly from the Supreme Court, and was being threatened by cyber criminals impersonating Nashik Police. They claimed the senior citizen was involved in child pornography and demanded money to stop the arrest.
The senior citizen almost fell for the scam, transferring his wife's money into his own account to send Rs 20 lakh to the impersonators. However, he approached the CCoE on time, allowing them to use the situation to their advantage. The CCoE pretended the senior citizen was still under digital arrest and played along with the criminals, asking him to transfer Rs 200 for verification.
Through this, the CCoE discovered that the bank account was being operated from Barpeta, Assam. A team was dispatched to Assam, where they identified the suspect as Rafikul Alam, a 25-year-old resident of Sanchuka. On August 16, Alam was detained and brought to Gujarat on a transit warrant.
Fifty lakh rupees was found deposited in the bank account by other victims, with transactions originating from at least seven other states including Jamnagar, Surat, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh. The CCoE traced these victims and stopped them from sending any more money to the fraudsters. The Surat victim had already sent Rs10 lakh to the criminals and sold his shop to pay another Rs 20 lakh.
Looking deeper into the case, the CCoE found 1,754 other accounts used for layering the proceeds of crime, with transactions totaling Rs 1,071.55 crore across 1,090 cybercrime cases. Additionally, they discovered 23 cryptocurrency wallets involved in transactions worth Rs16 crore, likely sent to China. The arrested suspect allegedly communicated with a contact in China, listed as "China Ma am 4".
Further investigation is ongoing, with the CCoE working to uncover more details about the digital arrest scheme and the individuals involved.
Written by urgent.news from The Indian Express's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
