Hyderabad Cops Arrest Fraudsters For Extorting Senior Citizen

Hyderabad: Hyderabad cybercrime police arrested three city-based fraudsters who had extorted ₹1.92 crore from a city-based senior citizen after threatening him and confining him for a period of a week from November 7. They were wanted in five “digital arrest” cases across the country, as well as in two cases in Telangana.

Those arrested were Pandu Vinith Raj, a student from Kothapet who supplied bank accounts, and G. Thirupathaiah and Gouni Vishwanatham, both merchants from Mahbubnagar district. Prime accused Sandeep alias Alex is at large. The gang was staying in a rented house in Mehdipatnam, police said.

The 71-year-old victim told the police that he had received a phone call from some persons pretending to be CBI officials, cybercrime DCP Arvind Babu said.

They claimed that a case had been registered against the target for misuse of his Aadhaar card, and that a bank account had been opened in his name at a bank in Mumbai. The fraudsters, wearing fake uniforms, make a video call to the target, and showed him the bank purported ATM card bearing his name, Arvind said.

To create panic, they also sent a forged FIR with a fake FIR number of the Delhi Crime Branch and demanded that money be transferred to “clear the issue,” the DCP said.

In total, the senior citizen deposited ₹1,92,50,070 into various bank accounts between November 7 and 14.