ROURKELA: Two months after detection of a Cambodia-based cyber fraud racket and arrest of six criminals, the Cyber Police of Rourkela with help of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) arrested a couple from the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad upon their arrival from Cambodia.
The arrested scamster couple identified as Harish Kurapati alias Harry and Naga Venkata Sowjanya Kurapati alias Lisa was produced before a court at Rourkela on Monday.
Rourkela SP Mitrabhanu Mohapatra said a complaint was received at the Cyber Police Station, Rourkela in December 2023 when a central government officer was duped of Rs 67.70 lakh. The investigation headed by Panposh SDPO Upasana Padhi led to the detection of the cyber crime racket operating from Cambodia and arrest of six cyber criminals from Punjab and Chhattisgarh earlier in January.
Following investigation, 16 people were identified and a lookout notice was issued against them. Upon the arrival of Harry and Lisa at Hyderabad, the BI informed Rourkela police leading to their arrest. SP informed interrogation of the couple led to several startling disclosures.
Police also gathered critical information about a scamming company operating from Cambodia. With help of the Interpol, efforts would be made to arrest three high-level operatives of Indian origin and one of Nepalese origin, Mohapatra further informed.
The couple, through an Indian agent, had landed in Cambodia and engaged in a scamming company at Phnom Penh in April 2023. The duo admitted that through dating apps, they collected profiles of Indian male victims and after winning their confidence successfully lured the victims to invest in crypto currency trading only to dupe them of hefty amounts. During the stock market boom around October last year, the scamsters using fake apps committed large scale investment forgery to the tune of several crores of rupees in a short span, the SP informed.
The woman confessed to have duped above 30 victims in the investment fraud in which one single victim had lost about Rs 2 crore. Further investigation revealed bosses of the Cambodia-based scamming companies are invariably Chinese nationals, who with a network of people from Indian sub-continent and Cambodia, contact Indian job-seekers with offer of legitimate employment, but upon their arrival force them to work for scamming companies.