Odisha Crime Investigation Department (CID) has busted an inter-state gang involved in digital arrest cyber fraud by arresting the scammer who defrauded a 66-year-old retired doctor of a government-run medical college and hospital after placing him under ‘digital arrest’, a senior CID official said on Thursday.
On the complaint of Dr Ashok Kumar Behera, a retired doctor of MKCG Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur, the CID had swung into action. The fraudsters impersonated themselves as officers of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and police personnel from the Mumbai Cyber Crime Division and inquired about an unknown mobile number linked to his Aadhaar card. Later, they levelled charges that the same had been used for procurement of illegal arms, MDM drugs and for originating threatening calls to many people in Maharashtra. Finally, the fraudsters warned him that he would be punished under appropriate sections of law for a minimum period of three to seven years.
Through acts of intimidation, they kept him in mental duress through a video call thereby plunging him to mental depression. They asked him to transfer all his money to their given account for verification and later on the entire amount would be returned to his account. Under immense mental pressure he transferred all his savings to a fraudster’s account to the tune of Rs one crore in two transactions, said CID officials.
After analysing transaction details and other digital evidence, the investigating team camped in Nizamabad. Upon verifying local details, they successfully identified and arrested the perpetrator, Abdul Saleem (33), a resident of Nizamabad in Telangana.
The accused is being produced before a local court in Telangana and will be brought on transit remand to Odisha. The investigating team has seized various incriminating articles, including a mobile phone, three Indian SIM cards, a Saudi SIM card, a passbook of State Bank of Hyderabad, a passport, an Aadhaar card, a PAN card, six debit cards, and a credit card.
Verification of his passport revealed that the accused had been to Saudi Arabia twice in 2017 and 2024. Besides, an investigation through the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) portal confirmed that the same account was involved in over 13 cyber incidents throughout the country.
The investigation in the case is still in progress, with a manhunt underway to arrest other accomplices involved in this crime, trace its trans-India ramifications, and follow the money trail, the CID officials concluded.
“The citizens are requested not to be subjected to any such online threat/mental duress by fraudsters pretending themselves as officers of law enforcement agencies/Customs/Excise/Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, etc., and to report such matters at the nearest police station,” the CID said in an advisory.