Tirupati district police have successfully dismantled a cybercrime gang that deceived victims by pretending to conduct “digital arrests.” The police arrested six individuals and seized significant assets, including Rs. 32.5 lakh in cash, 141 grams of gold worth approximately Rs. 10 lakh, eight mobile phones, two laptops, a SIM module, and eight routers. Additionally, Rs. 10 lakh from one of the accused’s bank accounts was frozen.
The arrested suspects have been identified as Singampalli Ganesh (34), Palakollu Ravikumar (28), Yulli Jagadeesh (37), Penki Anand Santosh Kumar (39), Utta Amar Anand (33), and Karri Vasudev (34). Last week, Arun Vinay Kumar was also arrested in connection with the same case, with police seizing Rs. 24.5 lakh in cash, 16 grams of gold, and freezing Rs. 26 lakh from his bank account.
The gang targeted both high-profile individuals and ordinary citizens, extorting large sums through fraudulent schemes. So far, authorities have recovered Rs. 57 lakh in cash and gold, and Rs. 36 lakh from bank accounts linked to the gang’s activities.
Superintendent of Police V. Harshavardhan Raju disclosed that the gang’s modus operandi involved contacting victims via WhatsApp, impersonating officials from the Mumbai Crime Branch or Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). They would falsely accuse the victims of being involved in money laundering or drug-related offenses, coercing them into transferring large amounts of money to resolve the fabricated charges.
In one notable case, a 65-year-old woman from Tirupati was tricked into transferring Rs. 2.5 crore after being falsely implicated in a Rs. 200 crore money laundering case. The woman reported the scam to the police on January 13, and a special task force tracked the gang’s operations to Visakhapatnam. There, it was revealed that the suspects had undergone cybercrime training in Cambodia.