In a shocking cyber fraud case, Chandigarh Police arrested 10 individuals, including Vijay Kumar, for scamming a woman out of Rs1.01 lakh in July 2023. The fraudsters impersonated officials from agencies such as CBI, TRAI, and FedEx to intimidate victims through video calls.
The incident came to light when a woman reported receiving a WhatsApp call from a man posing as an ICICI Bank representative. She was asked to provide her Aadhaar card and bank details. Later, another individual, claiming to be a CBI officer, appeared via video call and coerced her into transferring the money under the guise of “safe custody.”
The accused used advanced telecom equipment like Sim boxes—devices capable of routing international calls through local networks—to make the scam appear legitimate. Victims were even shown fake police station setups during the video calls to heighten the deception.
They often cited expired policies or anti-money laundering checks as reasons to pressure victims into parting with their money.
Who Was Arrested?
The ten arrested are:
Parvez Chauhan (33)
Shubham Mehra (25)
Suhail Akhtar (35)
Krishna Sah (21)
Vijay Kumar (22)
Vikas Kumar (22)
Ajit Kumar (22)
Vipin Kumar (22)
Saroj Kumar (19)
Abhishek Kumar (19)
Items Seized
Police seized:
6 Sim boxes
400 SIM cards
11 mobile phones
1 laptop
1 broadband router
2 modems
The investigation found that foreign-based gangs recruited young Indians through platforms like Telegram and Facebook, offering monthly payments between Rs20,000 and Rs25,000 to run Sim box operations.
Vijay Kumar’s mobile number was linked to the fraud, and he later revealed that Krishna had asked him to activate the SIM. Further interrogation uncovered the broader operation and the technical infrastructure behind the scam.
