Hans News Service Chirala

ChiralaII Town Police of Bapatla district have arrested three cyber criminals from Visakhapatnam and recovered Rs 10 lakh in connection with a digital arrest fraud case involving Rs 26.5 lakh, announced Chirala DSP Md Moin.

Addressing a press meet here on Friday, he explained that a case was registered at Chirala II Town Police Station on March 30 following a complaint from K Mohan Rao of Kottapet. The complainant said that some unknown persons contacted him through social media, introduced themselves as police officers, and threatened him that a money laundering case had been registered against him. They convinced him that money would be needed to get out of the case and fraudulently collected Rs 26.5 lakh from him.

A case was registered under Cr No 43/2026 under Section 318(4) of the BNS and Section 66(D) of the IT Act. The investigation revealed that the money was transferred from three bank accounts to other accounts.

District SP B Umamaheswar took up the case as a challenge and formed a special team under the supervision of Chirala Sub-Division Officer Md Moin and led by Chirala II Town CI A Sasi Kumar. Special teams were sent to Visakhapatnam with technical inputs from IT Core Inspector V Surya Narayana.

The teams arrested the accused, Naga Pradeep Kumar, and recovered Rs 8 lakh from him. Another accused Neel Kumar was also held, and Rs 2 lakh was recovered from him. The investigation found that prime accused Bondalapu Govind had received Rs 14 lakh into his account. The total fraud amount in all three accounts was Rs 26.5 lakh. Police seized two laptops, six mobile phones, three SIM cards, a memory card, a pen drive, passports, and Rs 10 lakh cash from the accused.

DSP Moin told the media that the investigation is continuing to arrest the remaining accused. He warned the public that there is no such thing as digital arrest and advised people not to be scared by threats from unknown persons. He asked cyber fraud victims to call 1930 immediately.