Three students, youngest in Class XII, arrested for digital arrest scam

Three students, youngest in Class XII, arrested for digital arrest scam

 P.Naveen@timesofindia.com 14,02,2025

Bhopal : Gwalior cyber police arrested three students — one of them in high school — from a hostel in Noida for alleged links with a syndicate that trapped a BSF officer in digital arrest for a month and scammed him of over ₹71 lakh. The suspects were identified as Aftab Ahmed Khan, a B Tech student from Jharkhand, Akhil Singh Bais, a BBA student from Delhi, and a Class XII student from Kota, Rajasthan. 

The racketeers, posing as Mumbai crime branch officers, had threatened to arrest the BSF inspector’s wife and son and forced him into making 34 transactions. The victim — who is on the verge of retirement and now posted at the BSF Academy in Tekanpur, Gwalior — was told that his Aadhaar card had been used for money laundering. Desperate to save his family, he sold off his flat, mortgaged his land and borrowed from friends. Gwalior cyber cops said the youngsters operated from a hostel room and had been cyberscamming people for two years. 

The money scammed from the BSF inspector was transferred to bank accounts in Karnataka, Aurangabad, and Gurgaon. The trio allegedly helped channelise part of this amount. Police said the accused would persuade hostel and university students to open bank accounts, which were then handed over to a Chinese gang. Some 20 accounts have been traced so far. When fraudulently obtained money was deposited into these accounts, the accused would deduct a 6% commission and convert the remaining amount into USDT (a digital currency), which was then routed to the Chinese gang. A recent transaction of ₹2 lakh was made through one of these accounts. Police were trying to trace its origin and destination