The Gujarat CID has arrested a 25-year-old man from Assam who is allegedly linked to 1,090 cybercrimes worth Rs 1,071.5 crore across the country, including digital arrest cases. Police said the accused, Rafiqul Alam, was connected to China-based criminals and played a key role in moving tainted money through a large network of bank accounts and cryptocurrencies.
The arrest also came as the CID’s Cyber Centre of Excellence, or CCE, said it had prevented 10 suspected digital arrest cases in different states during a separate probe involving a senior citizen. The agency said the accused was the “mastermind” of an international gang.
According to police, the CID cyber cell arrested Alam in Assam’s Barpeta. The investigation showed that he was the “mastermind” behind transferring tainted money into 1,758 bank accounts across the country and converting the funds into cryptocurrencies, which were then sent to China. Police said he was in touch with China-based criminals through WhatsApp and Telegram.
The CCE said, “Based on technical analysis and the victims’ statement, a team from CCE visited Barpeta city and conducted a three-day recce of the house of the main money launderer in disguise and arrested him along with his technical gadgets.”
Police said the accused used to move money received through digital arrest and other cyber frauds into different bank accounts before converting it into cryptocurrency and sending it to China.
The CCE said, “The money received by the accused through digital arrest or cyber frauds was split and transferred to 1,754 bank accounts across India within an hour by converting large amounts into small amounts to evade the attention of financial surveillance agencies.”
It added that the accused shared financial information, including scanner details, user ID, password, crypto wallet details and the modus operandi, directly with Chinese criminals through WhatsApp and Telegram.
Cybercrime investigators found 23 crypto wallets in his mobile phones, with transactions worth Rs 16 crore, which the CCE said established a connection between cryptocurrency use and a China-based gang. The agency also said it found illegal cryptocurrency trading through the ‘chip seller’ app.
“The accused has been involved in a total of 1,090 cyber crimes across the country amounting to Rs 1071.5 crore. His mobile phones also had gaming account transactions,” the Gujarat police unit said.
In a separate development, the CCE said technical analysis of the bank account of an Ahmedabad-based senior citizen helped prevent the digital arrest of 10 people after teams visited their homes. The senior citizen had allegedly been threatened with being framed in a child pornography case if he did not pay Rs 20 lakh to cybercriminals, and was later counselled by a CCE team.
The CCE said another senior citizen from Surat was threatened with Enforcement Directorate action by men posing as police, who demanded Rs 60 lakh. The Surat resident agreed to pay Rs 40 lakh by selling his flat, but when that deal did not go through, he sold his shop for Rs 20 lakh to pay the scammers.
The agency said a total of 10 people, including five from Gujarat, three from Odisha, and one each from Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, were counselled and stopped from falling prey to such digital crimes.
The Gujarat CID said the Assam arrest exposed an alleged cross-border cyber fraud network linked to China, while its separate intervention helped stop 10 people in different states from losing money in digital arrest scams.
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