Korikhode: The Punjab State Police Cybercrime Unit has seized four cryptocurrency traders in Malappuram district on Saturday, Aug. 12 in connection with an online fraud case.
Those arrested were identified as Suresh, 50, and Manub from Condotti police station range, and Suror E and Shahal Bairatur from Tirur police station range.
Mohali’s cybercrime team is now on the train home with four suspects.
The arrest comes nine days after a Karnataka police team attempted to arrest two cryptocurrency traders in Kochi, allegedly taking Rs 400,000 in bribes. The Kochi Prefectural Police indicted four police officers on suspicion of extortion and intimidation.
Mohali’s Cyber Crime Unit officials were contacted and said the unit had received a complaint from a person who claimed he had lost Rs 6 million to “parcel fraud”. He did not elaborate on the fraudulent activity or provide details of the accusers.
“The chase of the money led us to four people in Malappuram. Some of the money was deposited in their bank accounts,” said the officer, who requested anonymity.
Saabir Iyatir of Tirur said his brother Suror and friend Shahar were arrested for trading the digital currency Tether (USDT) worth about 800,000 rupees.
Shahar received 307,000 rupees in his bank account on 4 August and 5.05 million rupees on 7 August. The funds were transferred by a certain “Yupeng Wang” through Kevinraj Consulting Private Limited based in Kanyakumari.
Instead of receiving the money, Suroor transferred USDT worth Rs 8.12 crore to Yupeng Wang’s account on the Binance trading platform.
Now the Punjab police have arrested them for receiving ill-gotten wealth. “My brother and his friends have only been involved in legal and legitimate financial transactions,” said Sabir, the brother of Thrawr and a cryptocurrency trader.
How can traders know the origin of funds received in their bank accounts and whether they are involved in fraud, he asked.
A Mohali police officer said the unit had registered cases of extortion, fraud, forgery, intimidation and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code, as well as identity theft and identity theft cases under the IT Act.
Cyber activist Abdul Jabbar VH, who represents several victims of bank account freezes in Kerala, said the police had moved from freezing bank accounts to arresting innocent account holders.
“The law and Supreme Court judgments repeatedly state that police should serve notice under Article 41A of the Constitution requiring the accused to appear if the charges do not require arrest. I understand that public security did not serve a Section 41A notice to the police, defendant.”
Indeed, when Kochi police detained four Karnataka police officers on Aug. 3 on suspicion of attempting to extort two cryptocurrency traders, they were not arrested.
Kochi police said they were notified and released under Section 41A of the CrPC because the charges against them did not carry more than seven years of imprisonment. “We have complied with the Supreme Court’s ruling,” said a Kalamassery police officer.
Again, the charges (criminal number 25/2023) brought by the Punjab Police in this case carry no more than seven years’ imprisonment.
This is becoming a serious problem, said Jabbar, who is also general secretary of the All India Association of Crypto Traders, a group of small crypto traders. “Here, the four defendants did not receive any money directly from the accusers.
The association said it was raising funds from its members to petition the Supreme Court for investigative agency guidelines on freezing bank accounts and arresting account holders.
