Hyderabad, Jan 30: The Cyber Crimes unit of Hyderabad city police have arrested 52 cyber fraudsters, including four bank officials, in an operation conducted in various parts of the country. Seven teams had swept out across various states, including Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Bihar, and Telangana to apprehend the accused.

Hyderabad Police Commissioner C. V. Anand said this operation resulted in the arrest of 52 accused persons, including three key masterminds. The operation led to the detection of 33 major cases by the Cybercrime Police Station. The total fraud amount involved in these cases was over Rs 88.32 crore. The nature of the cases included trading fraud, digital arrest, investment fraud, data theft, social media, part-time jobs, APK files, USDT purchases, job fraud, and Tipline (CSAM).

The arrested individuals are wanted in a total of 576 cases across India, and 74 cases from Telangana. Police seized 44 mobile phones, 39 ATM cards, 17 passbooks, 54 cheque-books, 16 SIM cards, three laptops, 13 shell stamps, nine Aadhaar cards, PAN cards, three QR codes, NRT cash of Rs.47.90 lakh and cryptocurrency worth Rs 40 lakh.

The Police Commissioner said over Rs 2.87 crore have been frozen in the bank accounts of the accused. Three bank officials were among those arrested for a Rs 2.98 crore trading fraud. According to police, Shubham Kumar Jha, Deputy Manager, RBL Bank, Bengaluru, played a key role in enabling fraudulent transactions by exploiting his access to sensitive financial data and facilitating unauthorised transfers.

Haroon Rasheed Imamuddin Dharawad, Assistant Vice President, Axis Bank, Bengaluru, allegedly used his position to facilitate fraudulent activities by approving illegitimate transactions and bypassing standard banking protocols, which allowed the perpetrators to siphon off large sums of money. Kata Srinivasa Rao, Sales Manager, Kotak Mahindra Bank, allegedly utilised his position to recruit unsuspecting customers into fraudulent schemes and facilitated the opening of accounts that were used for money laundering purposes, enabling large-scale financial fraud.

The Cyber Crime police seized cryptocurrency worth Rs 40 lakh and cash to the tune of Rs 47.50 lakh. The accused converted the withdrawn cash into cryptocurrency to obscure the money trail and evade detection. The Cyber Crime police arrested two persons from Gujarat in Rs 3 crore digital arrest fraud. The accused Harpal Singh and Saiyad Aiyub Bhai are natives of Gujarat. During the investigation, it was found that the accused persons were involved in 17 cases across India.

The accused cheated a woman doctor in Hyderabad to the tune of Rs.3 crore by posing as a Delhi-based IPS officer. The accused told the doctor during a Skype call that she was involved in money laundering and even forwarded an order claiming that it was issued by the Chief Justice of India. They made her deposit Rs 3 crore in the bank accounts given by them.

The Cyber Crime unit also busted a Rs 2.06 crore stock trading fraud case and arrested five accused including the sales manager of Kotak Mahindra Bank. The accused allegedly orchestrated the fraud by utilising multiple mule bank accounts to withdraw fraudulent amounts, converting the funds into cryptocurrency, and channelling the proceeds to Dubai-based cyber fraudsters through Hawala networks.

Those arrested are Reddy Praveen, a native of Velpuru, West Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh, Kata Srinivasa Rao, Sales Manager at Kotak Mahindra Bank, JNTU Branch, Mohammed Ismail, a travel business operator, Mohammed Junaid, engaged in crypto trading and Maganti Jaya Kiran, a ready mix concrete businessman.

The victim had told police that he was trapped by the fraudsters on the pretext of investments offering high returns and lured him into investing through a fake trading platform, "Anisha App." The fraud began with messages convincing the victim to join a WhatsApp group, “VIP H8-5,” where members shared fabricated success stories of stock trading profits pertaining to the Anisha App. Trusting these representations, the victim opened an account with the app and made incremental investments. He suffered a total loss of over Rs 2.06 crore.