The story so far: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has widened its offensive against “digital arrest” fraud rings under Operation Chakra-VI. The latest exercise targeted three major cases in which victims were coerced into transferring crores of rupees after being falsely told they were under police custody through video calls. Three accused have been arrested so far. The agency says its search operations were built on detailed scrutiny of bank records and digital account-access trails. The operation is aimed at tracing how the proceeds of crime moved and who ultimately benefited from it.
What happened
The agency carried out searches at 89 locations across 20 States. Among those arrested is accused Akash from Haryana, who received ₹1.95 crore of the defrauded funds into an account he had opened himself, moving the money onward the same day. Raja Karmakar of Kolkata has been accused of routing Rs.1.5 crore of the proceeds through his firm’s account, while Jyoti Rani allegedly withdrew part of the funds credited to her account in cash and transferred the rest onward.
Cases under CBI scanner
The three cases at the centre of this crackdown illustrate the scale of the racket. A BITS Pilani professor was kept under a fabricated “digital arrest” for three months and defrauded of ₹7.67 crore. In October 2023, the victim was contacted by a caller claiming to represent India’s telecom regulator, warning that her mobile phone number was linked to a cybercrime complaint. Persons posing as Mumbai police, Enforcement Directorate, and CBI officials then took over via Skype, falsely linking her to the money-laundering case involving Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal. The victim was threatened with arrest unless she cooperated.
They claimed that a police warrant had been issued against her. For over three months, she was made to report her daily movements and, believing her funds needed “digital verification”, as told by the fraudsters, the victim withdrew ₹7.67 crore through 42 transactions and deposited the money in various accounts as directed. She had also taken a loan of ₹80 lakh from banks to make the payments.
In the second case, using a similar modus operandi, a senior woman doctor in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar was targeted. She was kept under ‘digital arrest’ for over three months (March 15 to June 25) by scammers who posed as a telecom official, a police officer, public prosecutors, and a notary official. Using forged papers purportedly linked to the ED, the victim was convinced that she was under investigation. She was made to stay on constant video contact and share her live location at all times, including during travel. The fraudsters told her that assets worth about ₹20 crore needed to be “parked” pending investigation.
The victim broke fixed deposits, took loans, sold gold, and offloaded shares, transferring ₹19.24 crore to about 30 accounts. The police arrested one accused, Lalji Jayantibhai Baldaniya, whose account was also used to receive money, and suspected a Cambodia-based cybercrime syndicate link.
In February-March 2026, 81-year-old businessman Ajit Gopalkrishna Saraf from Belagavi was cheated of ₹15.45 crore over a six-week “digital arrest” scam. In his case, it began on February 5 with a caller posing as a CBI official, who accused him of having links with Mr. Goyal. Another caller, projecting himself as a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) official, forced him to liquidate his fixed deposits and stock investments. The victim stayed isolated in his room for days and kept transferring the money on the scammers’ directions. The fraud came to light only when his son visited during the Ugadi festival.
Why the CBI crackdown matters
Digital arrest scams have emerged as one of India’s most damaging cyber-fraud categories, mainly affecting elderly citizens. A government submission to the Supreme Court had earlier placed total losses from such scams at roughly ₹3,000 crore. Recognising the scale of the problem, the Supreme Court in December 2025 gave the CBI a free hand to probe not just the scams themselves but also the bankers and mule-account networks that enable them, with the Court declaring that “enough was enough”.
How the response has evolved
Since then, the Supreme Court has issued a series of interim directions, the latest in August 2026, as part of suo motu proceedings on “digital arrest” victims. The orders followed status reports from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, which showed both progress and persistent gaps. The Grievance Redressal Mechanism now covers over 1.23 lakh bank branches across 69 banks, and a Money Restoration Mechanism spans 57 banks and all States and Union Territories, having restored about ₹18.05 crore across 36,290 cases so far.
To close gaps in the system, the Court has directed the RBI to issue a standard procedure for banks to freeze accounts linked to mule activity, along with safeguards like delayed-transaction mechanisms.
The CBI, on its part, has registered many “digital arrest” cases, conducted multiple rounds of searches across several States, and made many arrests. In June 2026, the agency raided over 80 locations across 16 States in connection with more than 200 cases.
What happens next
The Supreme Court has said the decline in reported fraud does not justify easing vigilance and has called for continued monitoring. On August 4, 2026, the Court passed a detailed order directing the Centre, States, the RBI, and telecom authorities to prepare a Standard Operating Procedure to curb “digital arrests” scams and implement mechanisms to redress grievances of victims, initiate criminal action through zero FIRs, and restore monetary losses of victims in a time-bound manner.
Published – September 05, 2026 11:49 am IST
