TS cybercrime cops nab 19 from 9 states for Rs 30-crore investment frauds

Hyderabad: In a nationwide crackdown on cybercrime, the Telangana state Cyberabad Security Bureau arrested 19 persons from nine states for their alleged involvement in investment frauds reported in Telangana over the past six months.

Cyberabad police commissioner-cum-TSCSB director M. Stephen Raveendra said that 143 cases, with a loss of around Rs 30 crore, were reported in Telangana, while 726 cases were reported from other states.

“Fourteen teams with investigating officers from Cyberabad, Hyderabad, Rachakonda, Karimnagar, Warangal and Siddipet commissionerates and from Jagityal district were simultaneously deployed to Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Delhi, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and different places in Telangana. Other teams at the CSB headquarters gave back-up on constant movement of the accused during the two-week-long operation,” he said.

The police said they started analysing the frauds after such incidents spiked, with losses running into lakhs, up to as much as '70 lakh in some instances. Corroborating analysis with technical evidence, they managed to profile the accused and zero in on their locations.

Further, based on the pattern of their movement separately during night and day, frequency of travel and several other specific clues that gave a nearly accurate location of the accused, the teams swooped down on the respective locations in different states and nabbed them.

All the accused were brought to the state on transit warrants and handed over to respective units in the state. Based on questioning the accused, the police detected 726 cases from other parts of the country as well and informed their counterparts about the arrest of the accused.

Mobile phones, debit cards, bank passbooks, cheque books and electronic devices were also been seized in the operation.