The Kadapa police arrested seven persons who were part of a cybercrime racket that had operations at the local level as well as in Delhi.

A woman from Mydukur had lodged a complaint of online fraud, after which the Kadapa police took up the investigation leading to the busting of the gang.

In her complaint, Giddaluru Umadevi of Mydukur town said that a man claiming to be an agent of an insurance company called her and informed her that he had come to deliver a cheque for a bonus payment, but was unable to hand it over to her as she was not at home. The caller then said that he would transfer the money to her bank account, and on the pretext of confirming her identity, sought details of her ATM card. He also asked her to forward him the One-Time Password (OTP) that was delivered to her mobile phone.

No sooner did Ms. Umadevi reveal the details, an amount of ₹10,000 was debited from her account. Realising that she had been conned, Umadevi approached the Mydukur police, who registered a case under Section 66(D) of the IT Act.

The cybercrime cell at Kadapa, which took up the investigation, zeroed in on Veera Nagaiah and arrested him. Upon interrogation, Nagaiah said that he and three of hsi friends Murali Yadav, Ravi and Ramana, were offered jobs by a man named Siva of Mydukur in a Delhi-based call centre, with a monthly salary of ₹13,000 and free boarding and lodging. Their job was to call up random people and offer to sell Ayurvedic products or mobile phones at throwaway prices. They would try to ascertain details of bank accounts from gullible people and then pass on these details to Sumit Bansali, Sivaratri Karthik and Narala Karthik, who ran the call centre and are known to have committed cybercrimes in the past.

The four, on returning to the State recently, followed the same pattern and resorted to cyber crimes at the local level, this time in the guise of officials supervising DWCRA, Rythu Bharosa and Amma Vodi schemes. All four persons were arrested by the Kadapa police. Based on Veera Nagaiah’s confession, Kadapa SP K.K.N. Anburajan formed a special team which went to Delhi and arrested Sumit Bansali, Sivaratri Karthik and Narala Karthik.

“Since cybercrimes are on the rise, we once again request people not to disclose their bank account details to strangers,” Mr. Anburajan said at a press conference here on Wednesday.

Police also rescued 15 local youths who had gone to Delhi hoping to get a job at the same call centre and brought them back to Kadapa.