UP STF busts gang behind digital arrest ofacademic who lost Rs95L; 2 held from Thane
Two miscreants, Mohammad Iqbal Balasaheb (47) and Shine Iqbal Balasaheb (42), were arrested for their involvement in orchestrating a complex scam involving fake "digital arrests" and forged documents.
The gang posed as officers from various law enforcement agencies, including police, narcotics, and crime branches, and defrauded victims of large sums of money using fake investigations. The accused were arrested following a detailed investigation, which revealed a widespread operation involving the use of deepfake techniques, manipulated documents, and fake video calls to extort money from their victims.
The STF recovered several items, including three mobile phones, two laptops, seven pen drives, three hard disks, six ATM cards, and two Aadhaar cards.
ASP, STF, Vishal Singh said that the investigation began when Dr BN Singh, a senior academic, filed a complaint on April 6, after receiving a WhatsApp call from a person identifying himself as Deepak Kumar Srivastava from a fictitious logistics company.
ASP Vishal Vikram Singh, who led the investigation, said that using cyber forensic tools and human intelligence, STF traced the suspects to their Mira Road address.
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