The Hyderabad Cyber Crime Police have apprehended a 46-year-old woman for her involvement in a sprawling digital arrest scam that has defrauded victims across the country. The accused, Krothapalli Rithika, a real estate businesswoman from Kompally, Hyderabad, was arrested on March 29 and remanded to judicial custody.
Police investigations have revealed that Rithika is linked to 32 digital fraud cases registered across India, including three in Telangana. Her arrest follows the earlier capture of three co-accused — Thota Srinivasa Rao (58), Jeevan Kumar (38), and T. Raghuveer (40) — from Andhra Pradesh on March 25. The case came to light when a Hyderabad resident received a threatening call from someone posing as a head constable from the Kurla Police Station in Mumbai. The fraudster claimed that a case had been registered against the victim and that an ICICI Bank account in his name was being used for illegal activities.
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To “verify” his innocence, the victim was coerced into joining a Skype call where scammers, posing as law enforcement and regulatory officials, manipulated him into transferring his entire bank balance to a specified account. Despite lacking sufficient funds, the victim was pressured into taking a pre-approved loan from ICICI Bank and ended up transferring Rs 3,57,998 to the fraudster’s account. He was falsely assured that the money would be returned within 24 hours, along with a clearance certificate.
During raids and searches, police recovered critical items including multiple mobile phones, ATM cards, SIM cards, cheque books, passbooks, stamps, and even a QR code scanner, all allegedly used in the scam operations.
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According to officials, the gang targeted victims using platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and social media. Impersonating officials from the Telecom Department, TRAI, CBI, CID, and cybercrime units, the scammers accused victims of grave crimes including money laundering, human trafficking, and terrorism. Victims were told they had been “digitally arrested” and had to transfer funds for verification, supposedly on the instructions of the Reserve Bank of India and the Supreme Court. Once the victims transferred the money, the fraudsters would vanish without a trace.
Police have urged the public to stay vigilant and not fall for such intimidation tactics. Authorities are continuing their investigation to trace other members of the network and uncover the full scale of the fraud.