Haryana: Man held for duping ex-army officer of ₹78 lakh in ‘digital arrest’ scam
The accused, identified as Anikant Bhat, a resident of Deepnagar in Dehradun (Uttarakhand), was reportedly acting on the instructions of handlers based in Cambodia, police said.
Police have arrested a man for allegedly defrauding a retired army officer of over ₹78 lakh under the “digital arrest” scam, officials said on Monday.
The accused, identified as Anikant Bhat, a resident of Deepnagar in Dehradun (Uttarakhand), was reportedly acting on the instructions of handlers based in Cambodia, police said.
Superintendent of police Nitish Aggarwal said the arrest was made by the cyber crime police station, Kurukshetra, following a complaint by a retired army personnel residing in Sector 2 of the city.
The complainant, Bal Krishna, said he received a call on August 24 from a woman posing as a bank employee, who alleged that his credit card had an outstanding bill of ₹1 lakh. When he denied owning a credit card, she connected him to other so-called “senior officials”.
Subsequent callers falsely accused him of involvement in money laundering using his Aadhaar card and threatened him with serious consequences unless he paid the alleged dues.
Out of fear, the victim followed their instructions and transferred ₹29.85 lakh on August 28, and another ₹49 lakh on September 1.
Upon realising he had been duped, he approached the police, who registered a case and launched an investigation.
Aggarwal said the accused had received training from a gang based in Cambodia to carry out cyber fraud. Operating from Dehradun, he used SIM bank devices (SIM boxes) to control multiple phone numbers simultaneously and make the calls appear to originate from Indian numbers, although they were routed internationally.
“SIM box functions like a mini-exchange and can hold up to 256 SIM cards. It enables fraudsters to make hundreds of calls simultaneously, making detection difficult,” SP Aggarwal added.
