KOCHI: The economic offences wing of the state crime branch has apprehended four individuals from North India on charges of extorting Rs 1.12 crore from a housewife in Ernakulam through an online lucky draw scam. The accused, identified as Jyothish Kumar, Mohan Kumar, and Ajith Kumar from Bihar, and Neeraj Kumar from Ranchi, were apprehended by law enforcement officers in Ranchi.
During the operation, the police seized substantial evidence, including 28 mobile phones, 85 ATM cards, eight SIM cards, various chequebooks from different banks, and laptops from the suspects’ hideout.
The investigation revealed that the fraudsters convinced the victim that she had won a prize of Rs 1.5 crore in a lucky draw supposedly organised for Snapdeal customers.
To claim the full prize, the victim was led to believe that she needed to pay a service charge of Rs 1.12 crore. The fraudsters then rapidly withdrew the extorted money through ATM cards and converted it into cryptocurrency.
The criminals used tactics such as immediately linking their mobile numbers with the collected OTPs from the victims to prevent the original account holders from receiving transaction notifications. They spent the money on a lavish lifestyle, including buying expensive phones and cars.
The Ernakulam unit of the Crime Branch traced the culprits by examining approximately 1,000 phone numbers, 500 mobile phone records, and 250 bank account records.
The case was officially registered at the Kochi City Cyber Crime Police Station based on the housewife’s complaint and was subsequently transferred to the financial crime investigation department of the crime branch due to its severity.
In response to this incident, Kerala Police has urged victims of online financial fraud to report such incidents promptly to the cyber police helpline number 1930.
The investigation was led by SP M J Sojan and DySP V Roy, supervised by Crime Branch DIG J Jayanath, acting on instructions from State Crime Branch Chief ADGP H Venkatesh.
The arrest of the accused was executed by Detective Inspector Saiju K Paul, Detective Sub-Inspectors T D Manojkumar and Gijmon Thomas, Senior Civil Police Officer U Saurabh, and Senior Civil Police Officers P Ajith and R Arun of Kochi Cyber Crime Police Station in Ranchi.