Delhi Police nabs West Bengal man in KYC fraud; evaded arrest for 4 years

New Delhi, Jun 29 (PTI) The Delhi Police has arrested a 24-year-old man from West Bengal for allegedly duping senior citizens on the pretext of updating their KYC details, an official said on Sunday.

Malya Das was wanted in a 2021 case, registered in Delhi, involving an online fraud of over Rs 1.5 lakh. He had been evading arrest for nearly four years, he said.

"In 2021, a woman lodged a complaint on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal, alleging that her grandfather had received a message warning that his SIM would be blocked unless his e-KYC was updated," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southwest) Amit Goel in a statement said.

When the elderly man called the number provided in the SMS, he was sent a link that installed an application on his phone, giving the fraudsters access to incoming OTPs and facilitating the siphoning of Rs 1.5 lakh from his account, he said.

A case was registered at Kishangarh police station and later transferred to the Cyber police station in October 2024, the DCP said.

During investigation, police tracked the money trail and found that Rs 1 lakh from the defrauded amount had been routed through online gaming web using two dummy accounts and later redeemed to a bank account held by Das.

"The funds were then withdrawn via ATMs," said the DCP, adding that despite multiple raids at his West Bengal address, the accused remained absconding.

Non-bailable warrants were obtained and fresh raids led to his arrest from the Keshiary area of West Medinipur.

On interrogation, Das revealed he had also been involved in another cheating case registered in Kolkata and had been in judicial custody there in 2022.

The accused, who dropped out after two years of a diploma in mechanical engineering, used his bank account to launder the proceeds and Rs 27 lakh had been routed through the account in total.

Das, along with an associate identified as Toofan, allegedly used a strategy of circulating money through online gaming platforms to break the money trail, police said. Efforts are underway to apprehend the co-accused, police said. PTI BM NB NB