Pradeep Kumar Das, 69, former director of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, received a call on August 14 from men posing as Delhi Police, ATC and NIA officers. They claimed his Aadhaar had been misused in a money‑laundering case and pressured him to move Rs 1,25,09,000 via RTGS to three accounts, all while he was kept under continuous video surveillance and monitored for every move.
On Tuesday, IFSO raided a building near Ramphal Chowk, Dwarka‑S7, discovering five men—Md Mahfuzar Rahman, Izhar Alam, Altaf Hussain, Intekhab, and Anish Khan—operating a Telegram‑based mule‑account network. Police seized mobile phones, a cheque book, and evidence of a cryptocurrency commission scheme that funneled 5.5 % of the money into Indian rupees.
The raid linked the group to a Cambodian‑based syndicate and exposed a broader fraud ring that defrauded a 79‑year‑old Andhra Pradesh resident for Rs 10.25 crore, with Rs 7.25 crore now frozen, and a 21‑lakh scam in West Bengal that drained a victim’s bank account.
Investigators have traced 78 complaints across states, totalling Rs 73 crore, and traced the stolen funds through crypto‑exchanges. The seized evidence includes Telegram chats, crypto transaction records, and a mobile app that reportedly auto‑forwarded OTPs to foreign handlers.
A court hearing is slated for next month to determine the fate of the 11 arrested suspects, while police continue to monitor the remaining bank accounts linked to the syndicate.