MBA grad, CA aspirant, pujari among 8 held for ₹14-crore 'digital arrest' scam with elderly NRI couple in Delhi

INvestigation into i of India's to the highest degree prejudicious “digital hitch” frauds has revealed a pattern of enlightened men using their smarts and tech knowhow to scam elderly people in particular. The eight perpetrators arrested so far for the ₹14.8-crore scam with a couple in Delhi's upscale Greater Kailash locality come from varied backgrounds and places, but came together through shadowy social media networks and international handlers operating from Cambodia and Nepal, police said.The police from the national capital have arrested eight men across three states, between January 15 and 21. These men include an aspiring Chartered Accountant who also runns an NGO; an IT diploma holder who studied from New Zealand; a Varanasi-based pujari (Hindu priest), an MBA graduate, and a private tutor.Divyang Patel, 30, a BCom graduate who cleared his CA Intermediate exam, ran an organisation called Floresta Foundation and a business advisory firm, was the first to be arrested. His NGO existed largely on paper, with no genuine charitable activity, but served a specific criminal purpose — facilitating the receipt and transfer of illicit funds, as per the probe. Krutik Shitole, 26, who holds a diploma in information technology from New Zealand, worked alongside Patel. Both were arrested on January 15 from Gujarat.Arun Kumar Tiwari, 45, a BA graduate working as a private data-entry operator, was picked up the following day from Uttar Pradesh. On January 19, the Delhi police arrested Mahavir Sharma, 27, also a BCom graduate. A day later came the arrest of Pradyuman Tiwari, a priest who performs private pujas for devotees in the Hindu holy town of Varanasi.The final three arrests occurred on January 21. Ankit Mishra, a BCom graduate who previously worked as a sales executive, was taken into custody along with Bhupender Kumar Mishra, 37, an MBA holder employed in a private job, and Aadesh Kumar Singh, 36, who provided private tuition and coaching, though his educational details were not clear yet. These arrests were made in Uttar Pradesh and Odisha.But these men are not the whole network. According to investigators, these men worked as facilitators, arranging and using “mule” accounts to route defrauded funds “on the instructions of an international syndicate”. Police seized seven mobile phones and chequebooks during the operation. Further investigation is underway to identify other conspirators in the network, police told news agencies.17-day ordeal over ‘national security’The victims in this case — Om Taneja, 81, and his wife Indira, 77 — endured what police described as one of the most disturbing digital arrest cases in recent memory. The couple, who returned from the United States in 2016, were kept under constant video surveillance for more than two weeks.The nightmare began in December when Indira received a call claiming her number would be disconnected due to “obscene calls”. "They connected me to a man in a police uniform on a video call," she recalled, noting that banners reading "Colaba Police" (referencing an area in Mumbai) were visible in the background to add authenticity.The fraudsters told her that her bank account was linked to a major money laundering case. When she explained that her husband was recovering from surgery and using a walker, thus unable to travel to Mumbai for questioning, the criminals offered an alternative — “digital verification at home”. "He said that since I was saying I had come from America to serve India, this was a matter of national security," she added.For at least 17 days, the couple remained confined to their Greater Kailash residence, monitored through continuous video calls and threatened with dire consequences. They were forced to transfer funds from fixed deposits into what the fraudsters called "RBI-mandated accounts" in the name of “verification”, through eight transactions.The ordeal ended abruptly on January 9 when the calls simply stopped, and the couple went to the local police over a promised “refund” from the RBI. By then, ₹14.8 crore had vanished.How GK case was crackedThe case was registered at the Special Cell's Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Operations (IFSO) police station, and investigators formed a team to trace the money first, officials said. The trail led to several alleged mule account holders scattered across states. According to officials, once the primary accounts received the cheated amounts, the money moved swiftly into numerous secondary accounts through micro-transactions designed to slip past automated banking security triggers. Police suspect much of the remaining money was either converted to cryptocurrency or withdrawn as cash, making recovery difficult.The money may have eventually ended up in neary 1,000 accounts, as per the probe so far.Pattern of targeting elderly victimsThe Greater Kailash case fits a disturbing national pattern. In Mumbai, a 75-year-old retired civic official was recently defrauded of ₹16.5 lakh after being told his name surfaced in the probe into the Delhi Red Fort blast. Fraudsters impersonating National Investigation Agency personnel on the Signal application convinced him he was allegedly involved in money laundering.In another Mumbai case involving a twist on the standard method, scammers not only took ₹4 crore from an 80-year-old man but also routed an additional ₹1 crore through his accounts, potentially implicating him as an unwitting participant in the chain.And perhaps the most staggering loss so far was recorded by 78-year-old former banker Naresh Malhotra, who was induced to liquidate his lifetime assets and transfer over ₹23 crore to 16 bank accounts he believed belonged to the Reserve Bank of India. The fraudsters had accused him of terror financing.Supreme Court sounds alarmThe Supreme Court has taken suo motu cognizance of what it described as a national crisis. A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi has expressed shock that nearly ₹3,000 crore has been siphoned off through “digital arrest” scams across India in recent years."We are shocked at how people are behaving," the bench observed during recent hearings. "When this kind of call comes, you are simply accepting their dictation." The court noted with disappointment how even highly educated seniors appear to "lose their sense" when confronted by these callers. Recent cases have involved AI-generated deepfake videos and synthetic voices to impersonate judges and senior officials. Some scammers have staged fake "digital courtrooms" complete with multiple actors playing different roles to add layers of authenticity to their deception.The court has also questioned if Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning tools are not being widely deployed to flag suspicious patterns in banking transactions. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has established a high-powered committee to improve coordination between police, banks, and telecom operators. Advice for caution, and a helplineAuthorities have, meanwhile, issued reminders to the public — no law enforcement agency will ever "arrest" a citizen over a video call or demand the transfer of funds for "verification" purposes. Citizens who receive such calls are urged to immediately report them to the National Cyber Crime Helpline at 1930.(with inputs from HT correspondents and PTI)