Prayagraj : An inter-state gang involved in digital arrest fraud was busted with the arrest of one of its key operators, Ayush Awasthi (29), a resident of Lakhimpur Kheri, said Cyber cell on Monday.
Police seized Rs 64,61,990, including Rs 40 lakh in policies and Rs 24.61 lakh in cash, besides two mobile phones and a cheque book found in his possession. On Aug 26 a Georgetown resident received a WhatsApp call from cyber criminals posing as an employee of a courier company and a cyber police officer, according to police. Keeping her under ‘digital arrest,’ they asked her to transfer Rs 1.78 crore to different bank accounts in the name of stopping action against her. Following her complaint, an FIR was registered on Oct 1 at Prayagraj Cyber Crime Police Station under sections of the BNS and IT Act. Awasthi was arrested from his village on Oct 4. In Nov 2025 he met one Rajan Shukla of Puranpur (Pilibhit) through a fellow villager, Nishant Trivedi. Shukla allegedly offered him a 10% commission to route proceeds of cyber fraud through his account, he said. Awasthi, Trivedi and Shukla flew to Mumbai on Sept 6, and allegedly facilitated the transfer of Rs 48.50 lakh from the complainant’s account on Sept 7 and 8, said police. Bank statement analysis indicated that the accused and their associates used the same modus operandi to target victims in Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, routing around Rs 3.80 crore into other accounts for layering.
They allegedly told her that a parcel containing narcotics, linked to her Aadhaar card , had been intercepted and threatened her. Police said that scrutiny of KYC and fund flow details of the accounts, along with analysis of CDR and CAF data, led the investigators to a bank account, allegedly used in the scam, in the name of Ayush Awasthi of village Sikandrabad under Neemgaon police station in Lakhimpur Kheri district. Three criminal cases were already pending against him at different police stations, said police. Awasthi told police that he runs a labour supply firm linked to a private bank, though its operations had stopped after a two-month assignment in Mumbai under a Gujarat-based tender. Police said that they have coordinated with the concerned states through the NCRP and SAMANVAYA portals and formed an inter-state coordination team.
Further evidence collection, identification of other suspects and legal proceedings are underway.