With the arrest of a key accused in Siliguri, the CBI on Tuesday claimed dismantling of a sophisticated virtual asset supported cybercrime network that has been targeting German nationals since 2021.
The operation, executed in close coordination with the German authorities, was named ‘Operation Chakra-IV’.
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The federal agency arrested Rahul Shaw from Siliguri, a key accused in the case, and presented him before Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate-6, Rouse Avenue District Courts in New Delhi.
During searches conducted at his residential premises, seven mobile phones, one laptop and incriminating documents pertaining to the crime were recovered.
The international operations division of the CBI registered a case on February 12 against Shaw, Shubham Sharma, Rajeev Budhiraja and unknown others, under Section 120-B read with Sections 420, 467, 468 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code as well as Section 66D of Information Technology Act 2000 and launched the investigation, police said.
During 2021-2022, the accused individuals allegedly conspired to target the German victims by gaining unauthorised remote access to their computer systems and bank accounts, under pretext of offering tech support services.
They falsely informed the Germany-based victims that their bank accounts had been compromised. Claiming that their funds were at risk, the accused, allegedly, manipulated the victims into transferring Euro 646,032 to cryptocurrency wallets controlled by them.
Following registration of the case, the CBI swiftly conducted extensive searches at multiple locations associated/linked to the accused persons, yielding substantial incriminating evidence.
Searches conducted by the CBI at six locations across Delhi, Kolkata and Siliguri from 14-17 February revealed that this transnational cyber-enabled financial crime network was channelising the proceeds of crime through virtual assets.
The CBI also unearthed an illegal call centre being operated by Shaw and the other accused at Webel IT Park, Matigara, Darjeeling, West Bengal and dismantled the same.
During a search, 24 hard disks of computer systems used by the accused persons, containing incriminating digital evidence, were recovered from the said illegal call centre.
