India’s Central Bureau of Investigation searched 89 locations across 20 states in three digital arrest fraud cases and arrested three people accused of moving the stolen money, the agency said.
The searches were conducted under Operation Chakra-VI, the agency’s ongoing cybercrime enforcement programme. All three cases were transferred to the CBI from state police forces.
In a digital arrest, fraudsters posing as police officers, courts or central agencies contact a victim by phone or video call, allege involvement in a crime, and hold the person under sustained psychological coercion — often forbidding contact with family — while extracting transfers described as bail, verification deposits or asset audits.
The three cases together account for about ₹42.4 crore (approx. US$4.49 million) in losses, an official press release stated. One, linked to the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, involved a victim kept under digital arrest for three months and defrauded of ₹7.67 crore by callers impersonating police officers. The release does not specify the victim’s role at the institution. A second case in Gujarat also ran three months and cost the victim ₹19.24 crore, again to scammers posing as police. The third, in Karnataka, involved a month of coercion and ₹15.45 crore.
Those durations are the notable detail. Where most online fraud is transactional, these cases show victims held in a controlled state for weeks or months, which is what allows losses to climb into crores from a single target.
The CBI said the searches were planned on the basis of financial and technical analysis, including examination of bank accounts and online account access records, and were carried out simultaneously to prevent destruction of evidence. Investigators seized banking documents, account records and digital devices, which the agency said are now undergoing forensic examination to map the financial and technological infrastructure supporting syndicates operating across state lines.
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The three people arrested are described as beneficiaries in the laundering chain rather than the callers. Akash, a resident of Haryana, allegedly received ₹1.95 crore into an account he opened himself and pushed the funds onward to other accounts the same day. Raja Karmakar of Kolkata is accused of receiving ₹1.5 crore into his firm’s account. Jyoti Rani allegedly received part of the proceeds, withdrew some in cash and transferred the rest onward. The agency said efforts continue to trace the remaining accused.
On Dec. 1, 2025, a Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi ordered a pan-India CBI investigation into digital arrest scams, specifically directing scrutiny of mule accounts and alleged collusion by bank officials, and requiring several states to grant the agency consent under the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act. In interim directions issued Aug. 5, 2026, the court told the Reserve Bank of India to publish a standard operating procedure for banks handling mule accounts, pressed states to notify cyber crime coordination centres, and ordered an inter-departmental committee to examine a shared-liability and victim compensation framework.
Home ministry figures cited before the court show digital arrest complaints falling from 123,672 in 2024 to 58,249 in 2025 and 16,377 through June 30, 2026, with ₹18.05 crore restored across 36,290 cases. The trend is fewer complaints but heavier individual losses.
