Delhi Police arrest 10 persons for inter-State digital fraud

The Delhi Police have arrested 10 persons involved in an inter-State digital fraud, amounting to over ₹50 crore, by impersonating law enforcement officials.

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The probe that began after a complaint lodged with the South East Delhi district police was taken forward with several raids across seven States — Delhi, Maharashtra, Kerala, Odisha, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

The matter came to light when a complaint was filed on December 7 by a Shaheen Bagh resident, who alleged that he had been cheated of ₹99,888 after receiving threatening video calls from fraudsters posing as Karnataka Police. An FIR was registered under Section 318(4) (cheating) of the BNS, and a probe was launched.

During investigation, the police found that the arrested accused were part of an inter-State and cross-border network involving mule bank accounts, illegal SIM activation and social media authentication using multiple devices. “Financial analysis and technical surveillance showed that more than ₹50 crore was linked to at least 66 complaints registered against the accused on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal,” an officer said on Tuesday.

“One of the accused was arrested at the Mumbai airport while he was attempting to fly to Dubai,” the officer said.

The syndicate operated a digital arrest scam, threatening its victims through video calls while impersonating police officers. The callers would lie to their targets that their Aadhaar and mobile numbers were linked to serious criminal cases and would coerce them into transferring money to avoid arrest.

“The kingpin has played different roles over time, including procurement of mule accounts, handling debit cards, illegal SIM activation, and routing of proceeds of crime,” the officer said. Several of them had a cyberfraud history, indicating a well-established criminal ecosystem.

During the operation, police seized 10 mobile phones, multiple debit and credit cards, digital evidence including WhatsApp chats and voice notes, and a car allegedly used by the accused.