Hyderabad: In a significant crackdown, the Hyderabad cybercrime police arrested 52 persons, including three masterminds identified as bank officials involved in various scams, totalling Rs 8.83 crore.
The arrested individuals are wanted in 576 cybercrime cases across India with 74 in Telangana and 33 major cases registered by the Cyberabad police station. Police seized cash and valuables worth Rs 87.9 lakh and froze over Rs 2.87 crore in various bank accounts. The seized valuables include crypto assets worth Rs 40 lakh.
The arrests were made in a wide range of crimes, including six investment fraud cases, four digital arrest cases, three cases each in trading fraud, social media fraud, tipline and job fraud and one case each in APK file malware fraud and USDT purchase fraud.
The operation was conducted in collaboration with various state police: Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Bihar and New Delhi.
Hyderabad cyber crimes police recover Rs 21.9 lakh in 5 cases
Three bank officials held for cybercrime
Three senior private bank officials are named as the masterminds. They were found guilty of creating and using multiple mule bank accounts to withdraw fraudulent money.
They have been identified as Shubham Kumar Jha who works as a deputy manager at RBL Bank and Haroon Rasheed Imamuddin Dharawad who is an assistant vice president at Axis Bank. Both work in Bengaluru. The third mastermind was identified as Kata Srinivas, a sales manager at Kotak Mahindra Bank in Hyderabad.
Cybercrime allegations against bank officials
According to the Hyderabad cybercrime police, Shubham Kumar Jha and Haroon Rasheed Imamuddin Dharawad, involved in the same case, allegedly enabled fraudulent transactions by exploiting access to sensitive financial data and facilitating unauthorized transfers.
Kata Srinivas is a key member of an investment fraud racket which converted fraudulent money into crypto-currency and channelled it to his Dubai-based associates via hawala networks.
Modus operandi and subsequent arrests
Bank officials Shubham Kumar Jha and Haroon Rasheed Imamuddin Dharawad were arrested based on a complaint lodged by a Hyderabad resident who said he invested Rs 93.89 lakh in a fake investment mentoring firm.
Jha and Dharawad ran a WhatsApp group named ‘C105.BlackRock Capital Stock Mentoring’ where the victim was persuaded to invest and get 10 to 20 per cent daily profits over his investments; which he later realised was a scam.
The Hyderabad cybercrime police discovered Jha and Dharawad used fake identity documents provided by their associates in Nepal and China to open hundreds of mule accounts and Gmail IDs. Being bank officials, they easily bypassed standard protocols allowing perpetrators to siphon off large sums of money abroad in exchange for commissions.
Besides the two men, a fabrication business owner and a resident of the Peenya area of Bengaluru R Mohan was also arrested in the same case.
Investigations by the Hyderabad cybercrime revealed they allegedly made fraudulent transactions worth Rs 23 crore and are linked to 20 other cases nationwide.
Cybercrimes in Telangana spiked by 43 percent this year: Annual report
Kata Srinivas used the identities of unemployed youth to create mule accounts offering them a commission in return. The money was transferred through these accounts, converted into crypto-currency and channelled to their Dubai-based associates via hawala networks.
Srinivas ran a fake investment app ‘Anisha App’ and a WhatsApp group named VIP H8-5 where ‘success stories in trading’ were posted to lure potential victims. The gang committed a fraud amounting to Rs 2.06 crore.
Apart from Srinivas, the Hyderabad cybercrime police arrested four more – Maganti Jaya Kiran, Reddy Praveen, Mohammed Ismail and Mohammed Junaid. Their arrests were made based on a complaint from a victim who had invested a total of Rs 1.62 crore, believing them.
Hyderabad cybercrime police retrieve crores of rupees in 2024
In a statement, the Hyderabad police informed that last year, nearly 300 individuals, including 294 men and six women were arrested for cybercrime.
In 2024, the Hyderabad cybercrime units refunded Rs 41,34,77,454 to the victims and Rs 41,22,03,795 with the national cybercrime registration portal.
The police said despite their success in refunding and retrieving lost money and arresting cybercriminals, citizens need to be vigilant and not fall prey. Vicitms should should immediately report by calling 1930 or the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal.
