Over 600 held & 8,000 rounded up in crackdown on cybercrime

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police has arrested over 600 people and rounded up more than 8,300 suspects during its Operation CyHawk 4.0, a large-scale crackdown on cybercrime conducted on April 6 and 7, officials said on Wednesday.

A senior police officer said the son of a Delhi-based eatery chain owner is also among arrestees.

“Due to losses in business, the son of the famous eater chain’s owner provided his bank account to move proceeds of cybercrime on a commission basis, where he received a three per cent commission. He shared his bank account user ID and password, and stolen or defrauded money was siphoned through that account. In this case, we have arrested Javed, and further investigation is ongoing,” Joint Commissioner of Police (IFSO) Rajneesh Gupta during a press conference said.

The officer said the operation targeted the financial backbone and operational ecosystem of organised cybercrime syndicates operating across the capital, marking a shift from reactive policing to proactive dismantling of cyber fraud modules.

“A total of 8,371 people were rounded up for questioning and verification during coordinated raids carried out simultaneously across multiple districts. Out of these, 1,429 accused were either arrested or bound down after investigators established strong financial and technical linkages to cyber fraud activities,” the officer said.

In addition, 2,203 notices were issued to individuals suspected of being part of the backward financial chain associated with such crimes, he added.

Police said the operation led to the registration of 499 fresh FIRs against identified cyber fraudsters, significantly expanding the scope of legal action against organised networks.

Besides the new cases, investigators were able to make breakthroughs in 324 previously pending cyber fraud cases, with several accused apprehended after linking them to digital and financial evidence gathered during the operation.

Delhi Police targeted mule accounts, cash handlers and scam call centres in a cybercrime crackdown, linking 3,564 NCRP complaints and tracing over Rs 519 crore to fraud networks. Raids recovered key digital evidence. The operation, backed by I4C after a month-long intelligence build-up, disrupted ongoing scams.