Pramesh S Jain
The six interstate cyber fraud suspects arrested in connection with the ₹24 crore“digital arrest”scam involving a 74-year-old retired teacher in Bengaluru have also been found linked to another Rs.15 crore cyber fraud case in Belagavi,the Karnataka Cyber Command Unit (CCU) said on Monday.
According to the CCU,two of the arrested accused are, Palak Bhai Patel and Amit Narendra Patel from Ahmedabad, Gujarat—are allegedly involved in a similar digital arrest fraud registered with the Cyber Crime Police Station (CCPS) in Belagavi City.
Belagavi police have obtained body warrants against the duo, who are currently in the custody of the Belagavi CCPS for further investigation.
The Bengaluru City Cyber Crime Police had registered under Sections 66C and 66D of the IT Act and Sections 319(2) and 308(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
Police said the victim,identified as Laxmi Ramamurthy,a 74-year-old senior citizen from Bengaluru, was allegedly trapped by fraudsters posing as senior officials of the CBI and Enforcement Directorate.
The accused reportedly placed her under“digital arrest” and forced her to transfer Rs.24 crore from her ICICI Bank account over a period of nearly two months.
Investigators said the victim transferred the money through 26 transactions into 23 mule bank accounts linked to 10 different banks across the country between February 10 and April 24, 2026.
The arrested accused have been identified as:
N.Sivagnanam from Erode, Tamilnadu.
Akkach Mallick from Mumbai,Maharashtra.
Palak Bhai Patel from Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
Amit Narendra Patel from Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
Om Prakash Rajput from New Delhi.
Gaurav Kumar from Bihar.
Further investigation revealed that Sivagnanam is allegedly involved in four other cyber fraud cases,while Akkach Mallick is linked to three additional cybercrime cases.
The CCU said that Rs.1.46 crore has been recovered so far,while another Rs.1.40 crore is under the recovery process.
Police are continuing investigations to trace the remaining suspects and uncover the larger interstate cyber fraud network involved in digital arrest scams.
The investigation is being supervised by Pronab Mohanty head of cyber command.
