Delhi Court Denies Bail To Cyber Criminals Impersonating Europol Officers To Scam Foreigners

NEW DELHI: A court in Delhi denied bail to a man who was accused of being part of a group of cybercriminals who pretended to be Europol officers and scammed foreigners. The court on Monday said that the charges against the accused, whose name was Vijay, were very serious and grave.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Deepak Kumar said, “Admitting the accused/applicant on bail may hamper the investigation and the possibility of him influencing/threatening the witnesses cannot be ruled out.”

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) alleged that the accused persons, along with other unknown suspects, were involved in large-scale cyber cheating and extortion of foreign nationals by impersonating Europol or Federal Police officers. They used to tell the people that their identities were stolen and misused to do illegal activities like laundering money and selling drugs.

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The agency told the court that the accused “used to scare and threaten victims with probable arrest, starting a criminal case against them, or a heavy penalty or fine, as well as freezing or seizing their bank accounts and properties.”

“By using this method of operation, the accused would force the victims to send their money to a given bank account, crypto wallet, gift card code, or voucher code in order to stop the coercion and criminal proceedings,” the CBI prosecutor told the court.

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“Accused/applicant has crypto wallets in Coinbase, Zebpay, and Binance where foreigners have moved Bitcoins. A total of Rs. 30,92,702 and BTC 25.83 were found in the accused/crypto applicant’s account,” the prosecutor said.

The lawyer for the accused said that “there isn’t a shred of evidence against him” and that “the accusations against him are false, frivolous, unfounded, and made up.”

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