Two cybercons dupe bizman of 47 lakh, arrested

Lucknow: The Cyber Crime Police team from Lucknow arrested two fraudsters, including a govt teacher from Odisha's Keonjhar district, for duping a man of Rs 47 lakh by impersonating a CBI officer and subjecting him to a fake digital house arrest.

Those arrested were identified as Kumar Sahu (33), a govt teacher of class 12, and Ranjit Kumar Behera (27).

The case came to light on June 23, when businessman Ravindra Verma filed a complaint at the Cyber Crime Police Station in Lucknow. He reported receiving a call from an unknown person claiming to be a CBI officer. The caller alleged that Verma's Aadhaar and mobile number were being used for illegal activities and that an FIR was registered against him at Andheri East Police Station in Mumbai. The call was transferred to a fake police officer on WhatsApp video, who appeared in uniform and accused Verma of involvement in money laundering and narcotics-related crimes.

The victim was coerced into isolating himself in a locked room, appearing on video continuously, and was told to transfer 99% of his assets to a "Supreme Court account" to avoid arrest. Believing he was under legal duress, Verma complied and ended up transferring Rs 47 lakh.

Under the supervision of Lucknow Commissionerate's top officials and led by Inspector Brijesh Kumar Yadav, a joint team of the Cyber Crime Police and Cyber Cell tracked the suspects using technical surveillance and intelligence inputs. On July 4, they arrested the two accused from Keonjhar, Odisha, and brought them to Lucknow for interrogation.

Additional DCP, Crime, Vasanth Kumar, said that the fraudsters would randomly target individuals, falsely claim their IDs were linked to serious offences like drug trafficking or terrorism, and pose as officials from the CBI, ED, or police. "Through WhatsApp or Skype video calls they would frighten victims into compliance," he said. The duo converted the defrauded money into cryptocurrency (USDT) to avoid detection. They used corporate credit cards obtained under fake identities and registered their own mobile numbers to operate bank accounts and payment gateways, the officer added.

During questioning the arrested accused revealed that Rs 27 lakh from Verma was routed through an ICICI Bank corporate credit card to a few accounts controlled by Jayant Sahu.