The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in its ongoing crackdown on cyber crimes and criminals under Operation CHAKRA, has arrested 43 alleged cyber offenders so far, intercepting live cybercrime operations, official sources said on Friday.

They were arrested after the sleuths busted a Gurugram-based call centre allegedly duping foreign nationals on the pretext of offering technical support and services to resolve computer issues.

The operation initiated by the federal probe agency has been going on to successfully dismantle a sophisticated cyber-enabled financial crime network that has been operating across multiple countries since 2022.

According to official sources, the operation was executed with cooperation from other international law enforcement agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (USA) and the INTERPOL.

The International Operations Division of the CBI had registered a case on July 22, regarding alleged offences under several sections and searches were conducted at seven locations across Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida.

It was revealed that transnational cyber-enabled financial crimes in this network were being coordinated across distributed centres mainly directed from a Call Centre Operating from Gurugram.

During these searches, live cyber criminal operations were intercepted and the sleuths of the federal probe agency got its hands on substantial incriminating evidence.

CBI teams involved in the probe have so far recovered 130 computer hard drives, 65 mobile phones, 5 laptops, incriminating documents, financial transaction details, call recordings, victim details, and transcripts used for targeting victims.

It has been revealed during the probe that the victims were contacted by impersonation and induced to click on pop-ups for download malicious software onto their computers and subsequently induced to make payments for the restoration of their operation.

The proceeds of the crime were allegedly channelised from multiple countries to Hong Kong.

The Central agency is coordinating with the FBI and law enforcement agencies in multiple countries through the INTERPOL for follow-up on leads in the matter, while further investigation is ongoing.