Kolkata, June 2 The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday filed a 60-page chargesheet in the case of a ‘digital arrest’ fraud involving Rs 1,500 crore at a special court of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Kolkata.
Two masterminds in the scam, namely Chirag Kapur and Yogesh Duar and a company owned by them, have been named in the chargesheet. In the chargesheet, both individuals have been accused of duping several people in different parts of the country of around Rs 1,500 crore after claiming to have taken them in ‘digital custody’ on charges of purported crimes like narcotics trafficking, money laundering, and terror funding, among others.
The fraudsters approached the common people posing as representatives of agencies like the police, central investigative agencies, or the Income Tax Department, and extorted money, which often amounted to over a crore of rupees.
In the chargesheet, the ED informed that their investigating officials have 300 bank accounts where the extorted money was transferred. It mentioned about 350 mobile SIM cards which were used for contacting and fooling their targets.
The agency had claimed that international roaming facilities were active in most of those SIM cards, so that the calls could not be tracked easily.
The ED also claimed to have confiscated property worth Rs 10 crore owned by the accused persons.
Kolkata Police arrested Chirag Kapur and Yogesh Duar, acting on a complaint by a woman who had lost around Rs 47 lakh after being trapped in the ‘digital arrest’ fraud.
Later, the ED also started an investigation into the matter and finally, on Monday, submitted its first chargesheet in the matter at the special PMLA court in Kolkata.
Last year in October, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing a Mann Ki Baat address, cautioned people about the new cyber scam trend in the name of ‘digital arrest’.
The Prime Minister specially clarified that nothing called ‘digital arrest’ existed in the Indian legal system. “No enforcement agency would ever ask citizens for personal details by phone or video call,” the Prime Minister had clarified then.
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