Delhi Police nabs 24-yr-old West Bengal man in KYC fraud; on the run for 4 years

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police has arrested a 24-year-old man from West Bengal for allegedly duping senior citizens on the pretext of updating their KYC details, an official said on Sunday.

Malya Das was wanted in a 2021 case, registered in Delhi, involving an online fraud of over Rs 1.5 lakh. He had been evading arrest for nearly four years, he said.

“In 2021, a woman lodged a complaint on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal, alleging that her grandfather had received a message warning that his SIM would be blocked unless his e-KYC was updated,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southwest) Amit Goel in a statement said.

When the elderly man called the number provided in the SMS, he was sent a link that installed an application on his phone, giving the fraudsters access to incoming OTPs and facilitating the siphoning of Rs 1.5 lakh from his account, he said.

A case was registered at Kishangarh police station and later transferred to the Cyber police station in October 2024, the DCP said.

During investigation, police tracked the money trail and found that Rs 1 lakh from the defrauded amount had been routed through online gaming web using two dummy accounts and later redeemed to a bank account held by Das.

“The funds were then withdrawn via ATMs,” said the DCP, adding that despite multiple raids at his West Bengal address, the accused remained absconding.

Non-bailable warrants were issued, and Das was arrested from Keshiary, West Medinipur. He admitted involvement in another Kolkata fraud case. Rs 27 lakh was laundered via his account using online gaming, with co-accused Toofan still at large.