Rajasthan Police Take Another Man Into Custody In Rs 2.5-Crore Digital Arrest Fraud

Rajasthan police have taken another person into custody in connection with the alleged digital arrest of a 90-year-old retired judge, who was defrauded of Rs 2.5 crore, officials said on Saturday.

Kochi City Police officials said they took Ebin Basil, a resident of Elamakkara here, into custody on Friday.

Earlier, Rajasthan police, with help from their Kochi counterparts, arrested Anand Babu, a resident of Mannamthuruthu in Varapuzha, in connection with the case.

Police said the money allegedly swindled from the retired judge was transferred to bank accounts held by the accused in Keralam.

Rajasthan police are continuing their investigation in the state, as more people from Keralam are suspected to be involved in the fraud, officials said.

The victim, identified as Ganpat Singh Bhandari, a 90-year-old former district judge, was allegedly duped of Rs 2.5 crore by fraudsters posing as CBI officials and an RBI manager. They allegedly kept him under digital arrest for around 15 days in August this year.

The accused allegedly told the retired judge that he was linked to hawala transactions related to the Pulwama case and threatened to arrest him in connection with it, police said.

A digital arrest is a cyber fraud in which scammers posing as police or government officials falsely link victims to criminal cases and threaten them with arrest.

They keep victims on video calls for hours or days and force them to transfer money under the pretext of verifying their bank accounts.