BHOPAL: Gwalior cyber police have arrested three students from a Noida hostel in connection with a scam involving a BSF officer, who was allegedly trapped in a digital extortion scheme for a month and conned out of more than Rs 71 lakh. The accused have been identified as Aftab Ahmed Khan, a BTech student from Jharkhand; Akhil Singh Bais, a BBA student from Delhi; and a class 12 student from Kota, Rajasthan.
The fraudsters, posing as officers from the Mumbai Crime Branch, threatened to arrest the BSF inspector’s wife and son, pressuring him to make 34 financial transactions. The victim, a BSF inspector nearing retirement and currently posted at the BSF Academy in Tekanpur, Gwalior, was told that his Aadhaar card had been implicated in a money laundering case. In a desperate attempt to protect his family, the officer sold his flat, mortgaged his land, and borrowed money from friends.
Gwalior cyber police revealed that the suspects had been involved in cyber scams for over two years. The illicit funds were transferred to bank accounts in Karnataka, Aurangabad, and Gurgaon. Authorities noted that the accused would convince students to open bank accounts, which were later handed over to a Chinese criminal syndicate. Around 20 such accounts have been identified. Once the scammed money was deposited, the accused deducted a 6% commission before converting the remaining amount into USDT (cryptocurrency), which was then funneled to the Chinese gang.
