Six individuals, including an IIT Delhi graduate and a private bank operations manager, have been apprehended by Mumbai cyber police for orchestrating a sophisticated digital arrest scam that duped a 68-year-old businessman out of over Rs 1 crore using impersonation and fake documents.
Mumbai cyber police have arrested six people, including an IIT Delhi graduate and a private bank operations manager, over what investigators say was a sophisticated “digital arrest” fraud that cost a 68-year-old retired businessman in Dahisar Rs 1.12 crore. Police said the victim was kept under virtual pressure for nearly two weeks, with the scammers using video calls, false documents and impersonation to make the threat appear official.
According to the police, the gang first contacted the man while posing as officials from the Department of Telecommunications and claimed his Aadhaar details had been linked to a money-laundering case in Delhi. An impersonator then appeared on WhatsApp calls as “Vijay Khanna”, wearing a police uniform and showing fabricated paperwork that included references to the Supreme Court, a tactic investigators say was meant to intensify the victim’s fear and isolate him from outside help.
The accused have been identified as Tarik Momin, Rakesh Jain, Chintan Desai, Shakar Tyagi, G Gohel and Ajay Sharma. Police said Gohel, a web developer with a BE degree from IIT Delhi, had previously been booked in a 2021 cheating case, while Tyagi worked as an operations manager at a private bank. Investigators also said the victim was ordered to report his location every two hours and was pushed into liquidating fixed deposits before transferring the money into multiple accounts controlled by the group.
The case was uncovered after the man’s daughter spotted signs of fraud and approached cyber police, who traced the money trail to a gold trading firm’s bank account. Officers said Momin handled mule accounts, while the firm’s director’s registered SIM card was routed through Tyagi and Gohel to manage one-time passwords. Another suspect, Desai, then travelled with the linked device to Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh, where the stolen funds were reportedly withdrawn and moved on. Senior inspector Pramod Kamble and inspector Sunil Lokhande are leading the continuing probe under the supervision of DCP Bajrang Bansode.
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