Overview
- India’s top court issued notices to the Centre, CBI and RBI on a plea by retired banker Naresh Malhotra, who alleges a ₹23 crore ‘digital arrest’ fraud, with ₹12.11 crore already frozen.
- Delhi Police arrested eight men across Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha in a Greater Kailash case that stripped an elderly couple of ₹14.84 crore, and reported ₹2.08 crore frozen so far.
- Investigators say the Delhi racket used mule accounts and had links to handlers in Cambodia and Nepal, with funds rapidly layered through numerous accounts and suspected crypto conversion.
- Cyberabad police reported 23 arrests across 14 cybercrime cases between January 16 and 22 and secured 354 court orders enabling ₹1.06 crore in refunds to victims.
- Recent cases also include a ₹10.98 crore trading-app fraud in Mumbai, a ₹4.38 crore ‘digital arrest’ in Navi Mumbai where the victim’s account was used as a mule, and a ₹16.5 lakh impersonation of an ex-NIA chief, underscoring the scammers’ tactics of video calls, forged notices and coerced transfers.