In a significant development, the Delhi Police have apprehended the mastermind of a cyber fraud ring along with an accomplice from Jharkhand, as reported on Friday. Deputy Commissioner of Police (South-West) Surendra Choudhary revealed that a complaint was filed at the Cyber Police Station by Hemant Kumar, who was swindled out of Rs 1,80,615 by a fraudster.
Kumar recounted that he received a call from an unfamiliar number. The caller, posing as a bank representative, alerted him about an ongoing international transaction on his credit card and warned that he would incur a charge of Rs 15,000 if it wasn’t halted immediately.
The victim further explained that the scammer assured him that no personal information was needed to stop the transaction. The caller then sent him a link via WhatsApp, instructing him to download a harmful application. After completing this process, Kumar discovered that around ₹1,80,615 had been withdrawn from his account through 13 separate transactions.
In response to the complaint, the police initiated an investigation, tracking the location of the alleged caller. They thoroughly examined the app used in the scam to uncover additional leads, according to the DCP.
During the investigation, the team traced the IP address to the Jamtara and Dumka areas of Jharkhand. However, intelligence on the suspects’ activities revealed that they frequently changed locations between Godda and Dumka districts. The fraudsters were found to be regularly altering their devices and SIM cards to avoid capture, Choudhary noted.
Subsequently, a raid was executed in the area of suspicion, resulting in the arrest of Munna Kumar Baidya, a Dumka resident. During questioning, Baidya disclosed that he orchestrated the scam by acquiring harmful APK files through Instagram and Telegram. The group obtained sensitive banking information, such as CVVs and credit card details, via WhatsApp. They then contacted victims, falsely claiming that unwanted services had been activated on their credit cards, and sent them APK files under the guise of deactivating these services.
Following Baidya’s revelations, several raids were conducted throughout Jharkhand to apprehend additional gang members. During these operations, Dinesh Kumar Mandal was taken into custody. Under intense questioning, he confessed to making fraudulent calls, withdrawing funds from victims’ accounts, and distributing the money among the gang.
The investigation further uncovered that the fraudsters had targeted not only the complainant but also numerous other victims. The device used for the scam had made around 5,500 calls, utilizing eight different mobile numbers. A total of 27 NCRP complaints were connected to these numbers, with five linked to the specific number involved in Kumar’s case. The DCP confirmed that a case has been filed against the accused under the appropriate legal provisions.
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