3 held for duping army officer of

Noida: Cybercrime branch police have arrested three men over a ₹2 crore “digital arrest” fraud that occurred in August with a retired Major General of Sector 31, Noida, police said on Sunday.
The suspects have been identified as Kanaram Gurjar, 30, a resident of Jaipur; Lalit Kumar, 22, and Sachin Kumar, 30, both residents of Alwar, Rajasthan, said Vijay Gautam, station house officer (SHO), cybercrime branch.
Multiple teams were formed to trace suspects and find where the money was transferred. “Our investigation revealed that the majority of money was transferred to bank accounts opened in Jaipur and Jodhpur,” the SHO said.
To park such a money, the suspects would use bank accounts of students from other states staying in Jaipur and Jodhpur cities, Rajasthan, to prepare for competitive exams. Such students were paid 20 percent commission, he said.
“The suspects were using their bank accounts plus three to four relatives’ accounts to help the digital arrest gang siphon off money. These accounts are also flagged by 16 state police in the NCRP (National Cybercrime Reporting Portal),” the SHO said.
It all started on August 10, when the retired army officer, who requested anonymity, got a call from an unidentified number. The caller, claiming to be from a courier firm, told him that an illegal parcel containing his identity cards was found in Mumbai.
On the pretext of an investigation, the suspect put him under digital arrest by showing a fake “consent to confidentiality” letter. He checked the army officer’s financial status and directed him to transfer the money to a bank account number for clearance. On August 14, the officer made a RTGS (a system for transferring funds between banks in real time) of ₹2 crore despite multiple warnings raised by bank officials.
The army officer was virtually kept at home for five days while being connected to the suspects via phone calls. He was required to share his movements, the victim told police in a complaint lodged in August-end. It stated that he realised having been duped after his money, transferred to the suspects’ directed accounts, did not return within half an hour as was assured.
“The suspects were in contact with a man identified as Rajkumar Singh, who was arrested by Mumbai police on September 2. We are also getting details of Singh,” said an officer.
However, it was also revealed that nearly 90 to 95 percent of the amount siphoned from the army officer’s account was withdrawn within a few hours of the incident, and just ₹2 lakh and 3 lakh was left before it could be freezed.