A 23-year-old MBBS student, Vikram Vishnoi, from Indore, Madhya Pradesh, was arrested on Wednesday in connection with a cyber fraud involving Rs8 lakh. Police reported that Vishnoi was allegedly responsible for transferring the fraudulently obtained money to a Chinese gang by converting it into cryptocurrency.
Vishnoi, originally from Jodhpur, Rajasthan, and studying at the Government Medical College in Alibag, Maharashtra, had provided his bank accounts to the gang in exchange for a commission. During police interrogation, it was revealed that Vishnoi used these accounts to receive stolen funds, which he then converted into cryptocurrency and transferred to the Chinese gang via a Telegram group.
The case surfaced after Vishnoi was linked to a scam that defrauded a city-based software engineer of Rs1.35 lakh through a “digital arrest” scheme. According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Rajesh Kumar Tripathi, Vishnoi was working with five Chinese youths in a Telegram group, communicating via a chatbot that translated between English and Chinese.
The police have traced approximately Rs8 lakh in funds that Vishnoi converted to cryptocurrency and sent to the Chinese crypto wallet known as ‘TLX’. Authorities have now contacted Telegram and Binance for further information on these transactions to probe the broader cybercrime network.
This arrest follows a recent crackdown by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on a multi-crore scam involving the HPZ Token app, which also promised investors returns on gambling and betting platforms, resulting in a larger investigation into cryptocurrency fraud.
