Six Nabbed In Rs 6 Crore Scam; Online Payment Channels Used For Fraudulent Transactions

A businessman from Anand Vihar in Sector 32 was arrested on Friday in connection with a cybercrime case where Rs 6.1 crore was siphoned off from a software development company's account. According to police, the defrauded amount was transferred to 141 bank accounts and e-wallets using a VPN service to evade IP detection. Harmeet Singh Malik, the alleged mastermind behind the crime, was detained by immigration officials at Mumbai airport when he was about to fly out to Dubai. Six accused have so far been arrested.

In Dec, Kushal Singh, director of Witzeal Technologies Pvt Ltd, had filed a complaint alleging that Rs 6.14 crore had been fraudulently transferred from the company's account between Dec 6 and 19, 2023. "Ours is a software development company which also operates in online gaming. We make transactions via online platform Razorpay. No SMS alert or email was received when the amount was debited from the company's bank account," the complainant alleged.

An FIR was then registered under sections 419 (cheating by personation) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the IPC on January 17. "The five arrested accused revealed that Harmeet Singh was the key player in the fraud. He operates from India as well as Dubai. We had issued a lookout circular (LOC) against him, and he was arrested at Mumbai airport on April 19 while leaving for Dubai. He is currently in police remand until Tuesday," Siddhant Jain, DCP cybercrime, said.

During the preliminary probe, it was found that Rs 10 lakh from the defrauded amount was deposited in the ICICI bank account of UdaanpeInfoserve, a telecommunication company in Sector 65. The firm's CEO, Shantanu Anand, was then nabbed on Jan 25, and based on his statement, four others were arrested. 

According to reports, UdaanpeInfoserve's then-chief technology officer (CTO), Tarun Kumar Dudeja, Karthik Sharma and his brother Yash Sharma of Hari Nagar in Delhi, and Rakesh Sharma, an alleged hawala operator from Rajasthan's Bikaner, were subsequently arrested.

"From Udaanpe Infoserve's account, the defrauded amount was transferred to other bank accounts. From there, it was converted to USDT cryptocurrency and transferred to crypto wallets in Dubai," a cybercrime official said. Karthik, a furniture shop owner, used to operate Udaanpe's bank account, and a debit card linked to the account has been recovered from his possession. Yash has been accused of converting the amount to cryptocurrency and sending it to Dubai-based fraudsters.

Cops said Rakesh is a hawala operator and was providing bank accounts to the Dubai-based suspect. They are looking for two more accused, Mohit Malik and Ketan, who are currently on the run.