Bidhannagar police on Tuesday arrested three individuals in Kolkata for their involvement in a digital fraud that defrauded one Dr. Utpal Kumar Bit of Rs 1 crore. The accused posed as Mumbai police officers and threatened the victim with a money laundering case, swindling the sum through three separate transactions.

The victim had filed the fraud case at Survey Park police station on November 9, 2024. Three suspects—Suraj Kumar Singh, Arman Akhtar Khan, and Md Jahinuddin— were arrested in connection with the crime.

Police discovered that Suraj’s account was used to receive the stolen funds, and Arman had control over the account to withdraw the money, which was then taken by Md Jahinuddin.

Police arrested three more individuals from Bangur Avenue area under the Laketown police station jurisdiction on Tuesday, after investigations revealed one Subrata Mallick’s involvement in receiving cash from Jahinuddin.

Following a raid at Subrata’s office in Bangur Avenue, police arrested two more suspects—Pankaj Mallick and Bishnu Agarwal.

During the raid, authorities recovered five mobile phones, two laptops, a cash counting machine, four cheque books, and cash amounting to Rs 28,37,400. Further investigations revealed that Pankaj Mallick and Bishnu Agarwal had used Subrata Mallick’s help to launder the stolen money as cryptocurrency.

The three arrested individuals—Subrata Mallick, Pankaj Mallick, and Bishnu Agarwal—will be produced before the Alipore Court on May 7.

This case highlights the increasing sophistication of digital frauds, with scammers impersonating law enforcement officers and using cryptocurrency to launder stolen funds.