Cybercrime police arrest 25 persons linked to various frauds

Twenty five persons across multiple States were arrested by the cybercrime wing of the Cyberabad police in connection with 13 cybercrime cases detected between December 31, 2025 and January 15, 2026.

A majority of the arrests were linked to online trading frauds, which accounted for 12 of the 25 accused. The remaining cases involved job fraud, smishing fraud, cyber fraud, part-time job scams and business fraud.

As part of the crackdown, the police also facilitated 182 refund orders in 50 cases from courts, enabling the return of ₹78.77 lakh to the victims.

Among the major cases cracked during the period was a ₹1.34 crore fake trading application scam. In this case, the accused created and operated a forged trading app named “NUVAPRO” and fake investment platforms to dupe a victim. The victim was initially lured through a social media advertisement and added to a WhatsApp group posing as an investment think tank. Fake experts and assistants projected manipulated profits through the app, inducing investments. When the victim attempted to withdraw funds, the accused demanded 20% commissions, taxes and settlement charges, but no money was returned. Two accused, Karimajji Srinu and Gandreti Ashok, were arrested for creating a shell company and providing bank accounts to route the cheated money for commission.

In another significant case involving a loss of ₹2.13 crore, police arrested two persons for supplying bank accounts to a cybercrime syndicate running a fake trading and crypto investment scam. The victim was contacted through Facebook and later shifted to WhatsApp, where he was guided to invest through a forged trading website and trading groups displaying fabricated profits, upper-circuit trades and IPO allotments. Withdrawals were later blocked and further payments were demanded before communication ceased entirely. The arrested accused in this case were Devanaboina Anil Sundar Kumar and Bethi Saikrishna.

Citizens were asked to report cybercrime incidents immediately by calling the national helpline 1930 or through cybercrime.gov.in.