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Pune Influencer Held After ₹10.74 Crore ‘Digital Arrest’ Scam

Police say his arrest exposes a vast mule-account network, suspected Hong Kong handlers, crypto conversion, greater difficulty recovering the stolen funds.

Overview

  • Investigators say fraudsters posing as CBI officers contacted the 82-year-old between January 23 and January 31 and coerced transfers totalling ₹10.74 crore into multiple bank accounts.
  • Pune cyber police took 26-year-old social-media reel creator Rohan Rameshwar Jadhav into custody after freezing his bank accounts and filing two cases in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.
  • Police traced the stolen money through 5,436 bank accounts and have frozen about ₹1.34 crore so far, showing most of the funds moved rapidly through layered mule accounts.
  • Three alleged local operatives were arrested earlier after ATM withdrawals; investigators say one operative handed withdrawn cash to Jadhav, who reportedly received commissions for arranging transfers.
  • Police report Telegram and video-call contact with suspected Hong Kong handlers and say some value may have been converted to the stablecoin USDT, a development that complicates international tracing and asset recovery.