PANAJI
The Cyber Crime sleuths of the Goa Police have arrested a 34-year-old Kerala native for duping a Quepem resident of Rs 1.05 crore in a fake ‘digital arrest’ case, in which the victim was forced into transferring money after being falsely accused of involvement in a money laundering case.
According to details shared by Superintendent of Police (Cyber Crime) Rahul Gupta, the accused, along with others, used WhatsApp numbers to impersonate enforcement officers and informed the complainant that he was a suspect in a money laundering case linked to Naresh Goyal.
The accused, later identified as Gokul Prakash M K, allegedly showed the victim a fake arrest warrant and forced him to transfer a total of Rs 1.05 crore into different bank accounts.
Police said that Rs 24 lakh of the defrauded amount was traced to the accused’s bank account. Gupta said that this same account is linked to 13 criminal cases in 10 states, involving a total fraudulent amount of Rs 9.02 crore.
Barely a fortnight ago, the Cyber Crime team arrested a Bengaluru man, S Rakesh, in a Rs 25.50 lakh digital arrest fraud. This user of three WhatsApp numbers impersonated TRAI and CBI officers, threatened the complainant from Vasco with digital arrest, and coerced him into settling the alleged case by transferring the whopping amount through an RTGS transaction.
In his case, the sleuths found that his bank account is linked to 22 fraudulent activities/criminal cases in Maharashtra, Kerala, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Odisha and Karnataka, including Goa, involving a total fraudulent amount of Rs 11,33,56,438.
