In a first, 9 sentenced to life by court in Bengal for ‘digital arrest' fraud
KOLKATA: In possibly the first such sentencing in the country for cybercrimes, a trial court in Kalyani, in Bengal's Nadia district, Friday awarded life imprisonment to nine scammers who had extorted Rs 1 crore from a Ranaghat resident by threatening him with 'digital arrest' last year, reports Dwaipayan Ghosh.
It agreed with the prosecution's charge that such crimes were nothing short of 'economic terrorism'.
Arrested from Maharashtra, Haryana and Gujarat, the nine convicts, including a woman, were part of a larger gang that has allegedly amassed Rs 100 crore by cheating 108 people across India. They are also likely to face trials elsewhere in the country.
Kalyani additional sessions judge Suberthi Sarkar, who had convicted the nine on Thursday, sentenced them to life imprisonment under BNS 338, which involves forging of documents, and 10 other penal offences under both BNS and Information Technology Acts.
Digital arrest is economic terrorism: Spl prosecutor
The defence indicated they would appeal against the conviction in the HC. IGP (CID) Akhilesh Chaturvedi said the nine cybercriminals were tripped by strong digital evidence.
'Probe revealed the fraudsters were siphoning money through multiple bank accounts spread across different states. Police seized numerous passbooks, ATM cards, SIM cards and mobile phones during the operation.
A detailed analysis of beneficiary accounts and phone numbers led us to uncover this sophisticated network,' the IGP said.
During the five-month trial, 29 witnesses from four different states testified physically before the judge. They included SHO of Andheri (West) PS and branch managers of SBI, PNB, Canara Bank, Bandhan Bank, Federal Bank, and Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, from four states. The chargesheet ran into 2,600 pages. Special prosecutor Bivas Chatterjee said they highlighted the ordeal of other victims of the gang and stressed that such frauds amounted to economic terrorism.
'We told the judge how hard-earned money of two victims — one a retired professor and the other a retired state govt engineer — had been transferred outside the country. This was their life's entire savings,' he told TOI.
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