Kadapa Police have busted a cyber fraud gang with the arrest of nine persons who duped an elderly aged person of more than ₹72 lakh in the name of digital arrest.
Superintendent of Police Shelke Nachiketh Viswanath said the Badvel police have successfully busted the highly organised digital arrest cyber fraud syndicate, operating through an extensive inter-State mule account empire and crypto-laundering infrastructure.
According to the SP, the case was registered on the complaint of a 70-year-old advocate P.V.N. Prasad of Badvel, who was targeted and placed under a fabricated digital arrest by cyber offenders impersonating as police and central investigating agency officials. “Through psychological intimidation, forged documents, false criminal narratives and continuous digital surveillance, the syndicate extorted ₹72.68 lakh from the victim between September 2025 to December 2025,” the SP said.
Investigation revealed that the offence was executed adopting high-level impersonation of police and Central enforcement agencies, creation of fear psychosis involving NBWs, arrest and encounter threats, enforced digital arrest by continuous WhatsApp video monitoring, routing of extorted funds through a multi-layered mule account chain, and laundering of proceeds through cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets, the SP said.
Police conducted intensive cyber forensics, banking intelligence and telecom analysis, which led to the identification and dismantling of the financial backbone of the syndicate. Following this, the police arrested nine accused at Hanuman Circle on Mydukuru –Kadapa Main Road.
Police found that the racket was controlled by a central kingpin structure, supported by handlers, recruiters, mule account aggregators and corporate-front facilitators. The extorted money was systematically routed through various banks. A financial ecosystem exceeding ₹22 crore linked to key mule operators was identified and frozen, effectively crippling the syndicate’s operational capacity. The syndicate adopted crypto-conversion as a deliberate strategy to anonymise, fragment and conceal proceeds of crime.
The arrested are Haddhad Koya, prime coordinator, mule account aggregator and recipient of ₹10 lakh of the defrauded amount; Sahad Thaikandiyil, core operator, network handler and impersonation strategist; Gibson Gilbert, corporate mule account holder; Prajit C.P., mule account carrier and liaison between account holders and network operators; Shajil Kanayi, mule account arranger and document handler (all belonging to Kerala); Annapureddy Pothuraju, a mule account holder; Bhupathi Prashanth, multiple bank account supplier and inter-State mule recruiter; Mallel Dinesh, a mule account holder and Garla Sudheer (all from Andhra Pradesh), operator and facilitator of mule accounts used for fraud.
Police seized ₹5.50 lakh cash, 14 smartphones and keypad phones, multiple SIM cards, debit and credit cards, cheque books, ATM cards, net-banking credentials and a car from them.
Police said investigation is underway to track absconding kingpins, inter-State handlers and international operators, follow the residual money trail and recover proceeds of crime, identify additional victims across multiple States and initiate attachment and forfeiture proceedings as per law.
Published – January 17, 2026 04:49 pm IST
