Four who cheated senior citizen from Gujarat of Rs 2.27 through digital arrest fraud arrested from Bihar, West Bengal, Haryana

Ahmedabad: Four men from three states have been arrested for allegedly keeping a Vadodara senior citizen under "digital arrest" for 14 days and cheating him out of Rs 2.27 crore.The arrests were made by the Cyber Centre of Excellence, CID Crime, following an investigation that tracked the movement of the stolen money across multiple states. The four accused are Bhupendranath Sarkar of North 24 Parganas, West Bengal; Shubham Singla of Ambala City, Haryana; and Sanjay Kumar Singh and Sonu Kumar, both from Kaimur, Bihar.The fraud followed a well-organised script. The accused called the victim posing as officials from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in Mumbai and as IPS officers from the Mumbai Crime Branch. They told him he was implicated in a money laundering case and placed him under what they called a "digital arrest" — a tactic where victims are kept in continuous contact with fraudsters under the threat of arrest, preventing them from seeking help or verifying the claims. Over 14 days, the victim was coerced into transferring Rs 2.27 crore into multiple bank accounts controlled by the accused and their associates.Investigators tracked the money through technical analysis of banking records. The funds were deposited into two bank accounts in Bihar and two in Ambala, Haryana. Further analysis showed that part of the money had been transferred from Kolkata, West Bengal. Of the total amount, Rs 91 lakh was withdrawn from Bihar and Rs 1.39 crore was withdrawn from Ambala. The investigation also established that the bank accounts were being handled from West Bengal, where the main handler was based.The Cyber Centre of Excellence formed three teams — one each for Bihar, West Bengal, and Haryana — and conducted coordinated raids across all three states, resulting in the arrest of all four accused.Superintendent of Police Vivek Bheda said the drive against cybercrime has been intensified and investigations into registered cases are being pursued actively.