In a significant breakthrough, the Karnataka Police have arrested Pavan Kumar, 63, a retired school teacher, and Zakeer Bora, 33, a BTech graduate from Assam, in connection with a large-scale cyber fraud case. The arrests took place in Sivasagar, Assam, following a thorough investigation into the theft of Rs 1.28 crore from Dr. Srinivasa Shetty T K, a doctor from Chitradurga.
The fraud came to light when Dr. Shetty filed a complaint with the CEN police station on August 23, alleging that his account was drained of Rs 1.27 crore. According to the complaint, on August 22, Dr. Shetty received a fraudulent call purportedly from the Mumbai police. The callers claimed that his Aadhaar card had been misused to open bank accounts for money laundering and demanded to audit his bank transactions. They held Dr. Shetty under digital arrest for over 24 hours and siphoned the money from his account. Despite the police’s efforts to block the account, the funds had already been transferred out.
The investigation revealed that the stolen money was initially transferred to a single currency account, which was then dispersed to approximately 95 different accounts. The primary account, traced back to Pavan Kumar, was central to the scam. Police teams from Karnataka were dispatched to Assam, where Kumar and Bora were apprehended based on technical evidence.
Further investigation uncovered that Bora and his associates had opened a current account in the names of Pavan Kumar and his wife, paying Kumar a commission for his role in the scheme. The National Cyber Crime Portal reported that the same account had been used in 91 separate cybercrimes totaling Rs 8 crore nationwide, with the stolen money being laundered through mule accounts and hawala transactions.
The accused are currently in judicial custody as the investigation continues.
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Man loses Rs 30 lakh to cyber fraudster posing as DIG of Anti-Corruption Cell
Man loses Rs 30 lakh to cyber fraudster posing as DIG of Anti-Corruption Cell
