Panaji, Oct 19 (IANS) The ED arrested an “RTGS agent” working for a cybercrime gang involved in the digital arrest of a Goa woman and extortion of Rs 2.6 crore, an official said on Monday.
Mukesh Kumar Pukhraj Jain alias Mukesh Bhai was arrested on October 16 by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Panaji Zonal Office, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, in the case relating to the Goa resident’s digital arrest, the ED official said in a statement.
Soon after his arrest, a Special Court (PMLA) in Goa remanded Jain to ED custody till Monday, the statement said, adding that he is the sixth accused to be arrested in this case.
After ED searches at some of the premises of the cybercrime gang, Jain destroyed records and mobile handsets that held evidence of this business, the central probe agency said.
He did not appear on the date fixed for his statement, and gave evasive replies when he did appear before the ED, said an official statement.
The ED investigation was initiated on the basis of an FIR registered by the Cyber Crime Police Station, North Goa, it said.
The victim was kept on a video call, made to believe that she was under criminal investigation, and coerced into transferring about Rs 2.6 crore into accounts falsely described as “Secret Supervision Accounts”, the ED said.
The ED investigation revealed that the extorted money entered a network of companies set up to receive the proceeds of cyber fraud by bank transfer, convert them into cash, and then into foreign currency.
The accounts of this network figure in over 300 victim complaints and more than 160 FIRs across over 20 States and Union Territories, with reported losses of about Rs 417 crore, the ED said.
Jain, while working as an RTGS agent for the network, arranged bank credits into the network’s accounts and, in return, received cash from the persons controlling the network, keeping a commission, the ED said.
In his statements under PMLA, 2002, he admitted that he knew the money in this chain came from cyber frauds, including digital arrest frauds, the ED said.
–IANS
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