The Cyber Cell of the Delhi Police Crime Branch arrested two cyber fraudsters from Sarchu, a remote and oxygen-deprived region on the Himachal-Ladakh border, a press release said.
The arrest, part of a real-time interstate chase spanning over 800 km, the systematic misuse of bank accounts belonging to poor rural labourers for laundering proceeds of cybercrime.
The case originated from a complaint registered at the Crime Branch police station, where a woman reported a fraudulent deduction of 69,953 after being duped by a scammer posing as an executive from an online coaching platform.
Investigations led police to Dumka and Godda districts in Jharkhand, where several bank accounts used in the fraud were found to be registered in the names of illiterate daily wage workers. These accounts were allegedly opened at the behest of site contractors, who retained ATM cards and passbooks to later route cybercrime proceeds undetected.
In coordinated raids, police teams apprehended two labourers whose accounts had received portions of the stolen funds. Their interrogation revealed the names of key operatives--Imran Ansari and Mansoor Ansari--who had fled Jharkhand and were attempting to hide in the remote Himalayan region to evade arrest.
A special pursuit team comprising Delhi Police personnel traced the accused through Manali, Rohtang, and Keylong, eventually arresting both in Sarchu. The accused, aged 43 and 55 respectively, confessed to operating a cyber fraud syndicate that exploited the identities of vulnerable workers by offering them menial jobs and instructing them to open bank accounts under the guise of salary payments.
These criminals had devised a new strategy of fleeing to isolated, high-altitude locations like Ladakh to avoid detection, knowing the jurisdictional and network limitations in such areas," said DCP Harsh Indora, who supervised the operation.
Further investigations are ongoing to identify additional members of the racket and dismantle the wider network operating across multiple states.
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