Mumbai: Mumbai Cyber Police have arrested six individuals, including an engineering graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and an operations manager from a private bank, for allegedly defrauding a senior citizen of ₹1.12 crore in an elaborate “digital arrest” fraud.
The accused have been identified as Tarik Momin, Rakesh Jain, Chintan Desai, Shakar Tyagi, G Gohel, and Ajay Sharma. Police officials revealed that Gohel, a web developer with a degree from IIT Delhi, was previously implicated in a 2021 cheating case, while Tyagi was employed at a private banking institution.
The victim, a 68-year-old retired businessman residing in Dahisar, was held under virtual confinement in his residence for nearly two weeks between July and August. Fraudsters initially initiated contact while impersonating officials from the Department of Telecommunications, claiming his personal identification credentials had been linked to a high-profile money-laundering investigation based in Delhi.
The harassment intensified when another syndicate member, identifying himself as “Vijay Khanna,” initiated continuous WhatsApp video calls while wearing official police attire. The perpetrators displayed forged legal notices bearing Supreme Court insignia and state emblems, coercing the elderly resident under threat of family incarceration and forcing him to submit live location updates every two hours. Overwhelmed by intimidation, the victim liquidated his life savings and fixed deposits, transferring ₹1.12 crore across several designated bank accounts.
The sophisticated operation unraveled after the victim’s daughter detected the ongoing exploitation and registered a formal complaint with the cyber authorities. Investigators from the North Cyber Police traced the primary transaction path directly to a commercial account registered to a gold trading company.
Police established that Momin operated the network of mule accounts, while Jain provided the trading firm’s SIM card credentials. Tyagi and Gohel managed one-time passwords and authorization clearances before dispatching the synchronized hardware with Desai to Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh, where the illicit capital was systematically withdrawn and redistributed.
A dedicated cyber investigation team led by senior inspectors Pramod Kamble and Sunil Lokhande, working under the oversight of Deputy Commissioner of Police Bajrang Bansode, is examining the broader syndicate infrastructure to uncover additional interstate transactions and potential co-conspirators.
