The CBI on Thursday raided over 80 locations across the country and arrested two persons, including one from Calcutta, in connection with more than 200 cases of digital arrest scams involving several crores.
The raids were part of the ongoing probe to dismantle cybercrime infrastructure facilitating digital arrest cases across the country. The accused, identified as Naresh from Chennai and Sanjib Saha, a resident of Calcutta, were part of a network allegedly linked to over 200 cases of cyber-enabled fraud that ensnared hundreds of people in digital arrest scams.
India has lost more than ₹52,000 crore to cyber fraud over the past five years. In February this year, the Supreme Court said the siphoning of such a large amount from April 2021 to November 2025 through online fraud, such as digital arrests amount to “absolute robbery or dacoity”.
As many as 60 specialised teams of the CBI on Thursday conducted searches across 16 states, including Bengal, Punjab, Gujarat, Delhi, Maharashtra, Haryana, Tamil
Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Assam, Manipur, Karnataka and Odisha.
“The arrested accused were involved in the incorporation of shell companies and the opening and operation of mule bank accounts. These accounts were reportedly used for laundering approximately ₹2 crore of suspected proceeds of crime,” said a CBI official.
The accused were part of the gang that cheated citizens through deception, intimidation and technological subterfuge. A probe suggested they were allegedly involved in creating a financial scaffolding to cover a money trail by setting up shell companies and opening and operating mule bank accounts.
Recently, the CBI unearthed a fraudulent website bearing a URL deceptively similar to the official website of the Supreme Court. The criminals allegedly used the fraudulently registered domain to deceive victims under the guise of a digital arrest. Based on a complaint received from the registry of the apex court, the agency started a probe.