International cyber crime gang busted, 4 held
New Delhi, June 18
The special cell of Delhi Police in coordination with USA’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has busted an international cyber crime syndicate. Four people have already been arrested from various places in India for cheating US citizens of millions of dollars.
The special cell conducted multiple raids and arrested four accused from different locations in India on Friday and Saturday, according to the HGS Dhaliwal, Special Commissioner of Police, Special Cell, Delhi.
Addressing a press conference on Sunday, Dhaliwal said that the arrested accused allegedly cheated several US citizens of more than $20 million. He said that the accused posed as Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents and operated out of Uganda and India.
The four accused, who have been identified as Vatsal Mehta, Parth Armarkar, Deepak Arora and Prashant Kumar, were arrested by the special cell of Delhi Police from Gujarat and Uttarakhand.
In order to nab them, the Delhi Police and FBI jointly executed the operation.
According to the police, Vatsal Mehta was the mastermind of the gang and his accomplice Parth Armarkar was running call centres in Uganda and India from where calls were being made to American citizens.
The Delhi Police said that one of the accused, Parth Armarkar (28), a resident of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, impersonated as the former acting administrator of the DEA and the director of Interpol in Washington to commit the scam.
“Armarkar is an Indian national and visits India occasionally. The FBI and Delhi Police shared technical evidence and information on Armarkar which led Delhi Police to identify his whereabouts in Ahmedabad (Gujarat). Our team finally nabbed him from Ahmedabad,” said Dhaliwal.
The Delhi Police said two more accused Deepak Arora (45) of Janakpuri (Delhi) and Prashant Kumar (45) of Dabri (Delhi) were arrested from Uttarakhand.
“They were on the FBI’s radar for a long time. As part of coordinated action, the FBI has interviewed over 50 victims so far and also collected evidence of fraud for more than $20 million that will be produced in court as per the procedure. Two victims from the US have also been examined through video calls by the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of Delhi Police,” Dhaliwal said.
The special cell commissioner added that all the arrested accused were produced in Patiala House court on Saturday from where the police got their five-day police remand.
