Sleepy Rajasthan town’s CCTV footage helps Maharashtra police crack Rs 2.14-crore digital arrest fraud

A senior cyber police officer in Maharashtra has arrested a 32-year-old man from a small town in Rajasthan after a CCTV camera captured his withdrawals at a bank, leading to the unraveling of a Rs 2.14 crore digital arrest scam. The fraud, which targeted a septuagenarian couple, involved at least two layers of bank accounts and the conversion of money into cryptocurrency or hawala networks.

The couple, a retired manager and school teacher, lost their savings to fraudsters who posed as officials from various agencies. They were initially told that their school teacher's name was linked to a case against the Popular Front of India (PFI), which had been investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). After transferring their savings to "government accounts," they were pressured into sharing their financial details, which allowed the fraudsters to manipulate them further.

The husband and wife eventually shared the money with the fraudsters, who transferred it to various accounts before withdrawing it. The arrest came after the Pimpri-Chinchwad cyber police found CCTV footage from a bank in Nainwa, Rajasthan, which helped them identify the suspect, Rajendra Ganraj Nagar.