ROURKELA: Police have arrested two cybercriminals from Mumbai for their alleged involvement in duping Bishop of Catholic Diocese, Rourkela Kishore Kujur of Rs 14.36 lakh on the pretext of ‘digital arrest’.
The accused are Nayan Lalit Nathwani (47) of Charkop and Dhabal Paresh Pandya (35) of Kandevali in Mumbai.
Addressing mediapersons on Tuesday, DIG (Western Range) Brijesh Kumar Rai and Rourkela SP Nitesh Wadhwani said after receiving a complaint on March 10, the cyber wing of Rourkela police registered a case and started investigation.
During probe, it was found that a fraudster faking as a cop of Mumbai police made a voice call to the Bishop. He claimed that the department of Telecommunication identified a mobile phone number in the Bishop’s name which was used for various crimes in January 2026.
Rai said another caller faking as an IPS officer of Mumbai made a video call to Kujur and told him that his bank account was also linked to the crimes. He then connected the Bishop with another person faking as an investigating officer of the CBI. The fake CBI officer told Kujur that his bank account in Mumbai was used to transfer money to one Naresh Goyel involved in money laundering and terror financing.
Though Kujur pleaded innocence, the fraudster reportedly showed him a fake copy of a non-bailable warrant claiming it was issued by the Supreme Court. He warned the Bishop that he was under CBI’s surveillance and should submit his activity report every three hours. Aware of Kujur’s personal details, the fraudster asked him to physically appear at the police station in Mumbai or before the Supreme Court, said the DIG.
Later the cybercriminal softened and suggested Kujur to go for priority investigation and promised to help him. The Bishop was asked to pay `36,500 towards filing of petition in the Supreme Court and `14 lakh refundable security deposit which Kujur paid in two installments through electronic money transfer. Subsequently, the Bishop realised that he was cheated and filed a complaint in the Rourkela Cyber Crime and Economic Offences police station.
Wadhwani said leveraging technical analysis of bank transactions, mobile numbers, digital evidences and beneficiaries’ accounts, the accused, both GST brokers, were identified and arrested before being brought to Rourkela. The duo was associated with a cyber fraud racket. The bank accounts used for transfer of the duped money were found to channelise proceeds of cyber frauds committed across multiple states.