Superintendent of Police L. Subbarayudu showing the mobile phones seized from persons arrested in the digital arrest scam, during a media conference in Tirupati on Wednesday.
| Photo Credit: K.V. POORNACHANDRA KUMAR
The Tirupati police arrested eight persons, believed to be members of an inter-State cyber criminal gang, for allegedly swindling senior citizens on the pretext of ‘digital arrest’.
According to the police, the accused made a video call to a 65-year-old resident of Tirupati. Identifying themselves as CBI officials from Mumbai, they threatened to arrest him, citing his ‘involvement’ in a ₹583-crore money laundering case.
Assuring to conduct the inquiry through virtual mode, the senior citizen was fooled into transferring ₹80 lakh into suspected mule accounts. After the accused stopped responding, the victim complained to the cyber wing of the Tirupati police.
Superintendent of Police L. Subbarayudu formed a special team under the Sub Divisional Police Officer (Tirupati) to probe the case, who found that the money had initially been transferred into two accounts and from there to several accounts in fourteen States. The trail led to several users of gaming applications.
Dande Kranti Kumar and Nimmala Pavan Kumar of Anantapur, Mane Koti Babu and G. Gautam of Hyderabad, P. Srinivas of Rajamahendravaram were accused of the crime, apart from M. Chandrasekhar Reddy, Kodela Sivasankar adn N. Prashanth Reddy of Ballari in Karnataka. All of them were arrested and the ₹2.5 lakh found in two joint accounts was freezed.
The probe showed that the prime accused, Koti Babu, went to Cambodia to get trained in cybercrimes for 24 days, got in touch with Daniel of Haryana and Teon of China and also a suspected criminal network, identified simply as ‘D’. He convinced several local youths to share their bank account details, to be used as mule accounts in the crime.
Special teams are on the trail of accused Mahamud of Yousufguda in Hyderabad, who is on the run.
Published – November 19, 2025 11:05 pm IST
