In a major breakthrough, Tirupati police arrested seven members of a notorious cybercrime gang involved in a ‘digital arrest’ modus operandi, recovering a total of Rs 95 lakh in cash and gold ornaments from their possession.
The gang had recently duped a 65-year-old woman in Tirupati by posing as CBI officers investigating a money laundering case worth Rs 200 crore. The criminals convinced the elderly woman that she was under investigation and used a fake “digital arrest” tactic to siphon off Rs 2.5 crore from her account.
Realizing she had been conned, the woman lodged a complaint with the Tirupati West police station on January 13.
Special investigation teams were quickly formed to probe the case, and they traced the suspects to Visakhapatnam. Following this, the police arrested the seven individuals, who were identified as Palakollu Arun Vinay Kumar (Rajahmundry), Singampalli Ganesh (34), Palakollu Ravi Kumar (28), U Jagadish (37), P Anand Santosh Kumar (39), U Amar Anand (33), and Karri Vasudev—all residents of various locations in Visakhapatnam.
Tirupati SP, V Harshavardhan Raju, confirmed the arrests, adding that the investigation is ongoing to uncover any other potential victims and associates of the gang.
