Delhi Police have arrested two individuals for allegedly defrauding a man of Rs 4.95 lakh by posing as officials from the Mumbai Crime Branch. The suspects, already in judicial custody at Tihar Jail for a separate 2023 cyber fraud case, were arrested again on September 17.
According to a police officer, “The complainant was duped on the pretext of a ‘digital arrest’ by fake Crime Branch officers.”
The accused have been identified as Rakesh Singh (26) from Ghazipur and Sachin Sangwan (25) from Patparganj. They have since been transferred to police custody at the South West Cyber Police Station. “The duo had been under surveillance for some time in connection with this digital arrest scam,” said an official familiar with the investigation.
The Fraud Scheme
The case unfolded when the complainant, 45-year-old Saurabh Pillay from Vasant Kunj, received a phone call on March 28, 2023, from someone claiming to be a FedEx agent. The caller alleged that a package addressed to Pillay had arrived in Toronto, containing suspicious items, including a SIM card, ATM card, and passport. When Pillay denied knowledge of the package, the caller instructed him to file a complaint at the Colaba Police Station and transferred the call to another number.
“The second caller posed as a Crime Branch officer and informed Pillay that an arrest warrant had been issued against him,” a police officer revealed. Pillay was connected with a supposed lawyer to resolve the matter, who advised him to transfer Rs 2 lakh and later Rs 2.95 lakh to a Yes Bank account. The funds were purportedly required for a priority investigation, anticipatory bail, a stay on the arrest warrant, and an ‘innocence certificate.’ Pillay complied, transferring a total of Rs 4.95 lakh, after which the so-called lawyer stopped responding to his calls.
Money Trail Leads to Arrest
The police investigation traced the bank account to a resident of Mumbai, and the funds were eventually linked to Rakesh Singh. Further investigation revealed that Sangwan, a BTech graduate, played a key role in laundering the money. Police said Sangwan used multiple bank accounts registered under different company names to move the scammed funds.
“Sangwan would withdraw cash from Rakesh’s account using a cheque, deposit it into another account, and then convert it into cryptocurrency using peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions on Binance by converting it into USDT (Tether), thus making it difficult to trace the money trail,” said another officer.
