BERHAMPUR: The cyber crime wing of Berhampur police has arrested two Gujarat natives for cheating Vice Chancellor of Berhampur University Prof Geetanjali Dash to the tune of Rs 14 lakh by holding her under ‘digital arrest.’
The accused were identified as Bhutaiya Jenil Jaysukhbhai (23) and Vishwajeetsinh Gohil (21), who were arrested from Gujarat’s Bhavnagar on Thursday.
Addressing the media on Saturday, SP Saravana Vivek M said that the fraudsters coerced the V-C into transferring Rs 14 lakh into their accounts after putting her under digital arrest, following which she lodged a complaint on February 24.
In the complaint, Dash said she received a call from the fraudsters on February 14, who posed as CBI officials and claimed that she was involved in a money laundering case linked to a major trading scam. They claimed that an account had been opened in her name at Canara Bank through which Rs 6 crore had been laundered.
She was held under digital arrest till February 22 and was coerced into applying for a so-called “priority investigation” against a fake Supreme Court warrant, which was sent to her via WhatsApp.
The fraudsters instructed Dash to deposit all her cash into a bank account as part of the investigation on February 14. She transferred Rs 14 lakh into the account and she received Rs 80,000 the next day, with the fraudsters claiming that the amount had been “verified”. They assured that the rest amount will also be received after verification. However, they did not return the remaining amount till February 24, after which Dash became suspicious and filed the complaint.
Following investigation, the police traced the accused to Bhavnagar and arrested them with the help of local police.
Several items, including mobile phones, SIM cards, and Aadhaar cards were recovered from the accused. They was produced before the chief judicial magistrate in Bhavnagar and brought to Berhampur on remand. They were later presented before the SDJM Court in Berhampur and have been remanded to judicial custody.
Vivek, who supervised the case, said the accused were ‘mule account operators’, middlemen who received the defrauded money and transferred it to other parties. Further investigation is on to identify the mastermind of the scam, he added.