Digital arrest fraud case: 9 convicted get life imprisonment

Kolkata: In a major development in the digital arrest fraud case conviction secured by the Ranaghat Police District, all the nine convicted have been awarded with life imprisonment by the Kalyani Court on Friday.

“It is a historic day for the prosecution and investigating agencies. This is not only the first conviction in the digital arrested fraud case, but also the convicts of a cyber crime case getting life presentment for the first time,” said Special Public prosecutor, Bibhas Chatterjee. On November 6, last year, a retired agricultural scientist identified as Partha Kumar Mukhopadhyay of Kalyani lodged a complaint at the Ranaghat Cyber Crime Police Station alleging that on October 19, 2024, he received a call from WhatsApp number wherein the caller introduced himself as Sub Inspector (SI) Hemraj Koli of Andheri Police Station, Mumbai and informed him that he was found involved in a financial fraud.

To convince Mukhopadhyay, the fraudster had sent various forged documents related to cases wherein he was mentioned as an accused. By putting the elderly scientist in fear, the caller forced him to send more than Rs 1 crore to multiple bank accounts on the pretext of digital arrest.

After the case was registered, police arrested 13 persons from several states like Maharashtra, Gujarat and Haryana but against four, no evidence was found. Therefore, the four of them were released and subsequently their names were not mentioned in the chargesheet.

After the trial, the nine persons were convicted on Thursday following which they were awarded with life presentment on Friday. It has been learnt that a total of 108 complaints are registered on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) against this gang involving cheated amounts worth more than Rs 100 crore.