Two held for duping Delhi man of over Rs 10 lakh through APK file fraud

Delhi Police has arrested two people from Jharkhand for allegedly duping a 65-year-old man of more than Rs 10 lakh through an APK file-based cyber fraud, an official said on Monday.

The accused, Amarnath Rabidas, 20, and Bikash Rabidas, 21, both residents of Jharkhand’s Dhanbad district, were arrested on May 9, he said.

According to police, the case came to light after complainant Rakesh Kumar, a resident of Meet Nagar in northeast Delhi, lodged a complaint.

Kumar alleged that on April 25, he received a call from an unknown person claiming to be calling regarding the updation of KYC details linked to his bank accounts.

“The caller allegedly asked him to download a file on his phone. Soon after, Rs 10,52,938 was fraudulently withdrawn from his bank accounts through unauthorised transactions,” a senior police officer said.

Based on the complaint, an e-FIR was registered on April 26. During the investigation, a police team analysed technical evidence and tracked one of the suspects to Jharkhand.

Police first arrested Amarnath Rabidas from the Pithakyari area of Jaharkhand’s Dhanbad district and recovered three mobile phones from his possession. During interrogation, he disclosed the involvement of his associate Bikash Rabidas, who was subsequently apprehended and another mobile phone was seized from him.

The accused allegedly revealed that they cheated people using APK files and routed the defrauded money through multiple bank accounts before withdrawing cash through ATMs.

Police said Rs 2.05 lakh of the cheated amount has been frozen in a bank account during the investigation.

Five other complaints registered on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) were also found linked to the recovered mobile phones. Further investigation is underway.