Cyber fraud: Two more accused arrested from Kerala
Early this year, Krishnan Kumar Kaushal (60), a native of Himachal Pradesh, who retired in July 2024 as Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) approached the police after he lost over Rs 6 crore to fraudsters.
Representative Image (Illustration/Jancy Rani)
CHENNAI: The Greater Chennai Police’s Cyber Crime Wing have arrested absconding accused from Kerala in two separate cyber fraud cases including that of Rs 6.58 crore fraud on a retired Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer.
Early this year, Krishnan Kumar Kaushal (60), a native of Himachal Pradesh, who retired in July 2024 as Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) approached the police after he lost over Rs 6 crore to fraudsters.
The 1990 batch IFS officer had received the WhatsApp messages in December 2024. He downloaded two apps, as guided by the ‘customer service executives’ and ended up making online bank transfers totalling Rs 6.58 crore to the fraudster’s bank accounts.
The 60-year-old realised he was being scammed after observing that the payees were in different parts of the country and doing different businesses such as furniture, finance and the data in the app were fake.
“The money deposited in their accounts was sent abroad through hawala channels and returned to India as USDT Crypto currency, through BINANCE trading APP,” a police officer said.
Police first arrested five suspects from New Delhi and surrounding areas and subsequently, 3 more – Sreejith R Nair (47) of Ernakulam, Abdulsalu (47) of Kozhikode and Mohammed Farwaiz (44) of Malappuram were arrested in May this year. On Saturday, a police team arrested another accused, Younus (45) from Kerala.
In another case, the cybercrime personnel arrested Kailash Nath (26) of Kerala, making him the 16th accused in a ‘Digital arrest’ fraud in which a 72-year-old retired engineer, a resident of Abhiramapuram was cheated of Rs 4.67 crore last year.