Bengaluru cybercrime police have arrested four people for allegedly defrauding a deemed-to-be university of ₹1.40 crore through a fake WhatsApp account created in the name of its chairman, while the suspected mastermind remains absconding. Police said the network had been linked to 22 fraud cases across several states and had used more than 60 mule bank accounts.
The arrests followed a complaint from A.S. Santosh of the university, according to the cybercrime division. The arrested accused were identified as Annayya, 25, from Devasandra Main Road in Bengaluru’s K.R. Puram; Buspalli Ravikumar Reddy, 26, from Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh; Ambరాయ, 39, from Kognur in Afzalpur taluk of Kalaburagi district; and Syed Wajihuddin Qadri, 25, from Telangana.
Police said the alleged kingpin, identified as Sunny alias David, was still absconding and that efforts were under way to trace him. Officers seized ₹8.50 lakh in cash and four mobile phones from the arrested suspects. The accused have been taken into custody for questioning.
According to the police account, the fraud began when a fake WhatsApp profile was created on September 8 using the photograph and mobile number of deemed-to-be university chairman Chenraj Roychand. The accused allegedly sent messages to the university’s accountant, Vinay Bhushan, asking for details of the money available in the institution’s bank account.
The accountant then received instructions to urgently transfer ₹1.40 crore to a bank account provided through WhatsApp. Police said the accountant believed that the messages had been sent by the chairman and transferred the money from the institution’s account to the accounts controlled by the alleged fraudsters.
Investigators said the accused first sent an unfamiliar ZIP file to members of the institution’s staff. Through that file, they allegedly gained unauthorised access to the Chrome browser and logged into WhatsApp Web. The group is suspected to have downloaded university data without the staff’s knowledge and monitored financial transactions for about 15 to 20 days before contacting the accountant while impersonating the chairman.
Police said foreign IP addresses were used during the operation. Based on technical information, teams conducted operations in Bengaluru and Hyderabad and arrested the four accused. The investigation is continuing to establish the full flow of the money and identify other people involved in the network.
The police said two of the arrested suspects allegedly recruited local people by offering them commissions, opened mule accounts in their names and obtained cheques. Annayya allegedly acted on Sunny’s instructions to create such accounts, while Ravikumar Reddy and Ambರಾಯ allegedly used the cheques to withdraw money. Police said the network’s alleged use of accounts across several states points to an organised structure rather than an isolated impersonation attempt.
The operation was conducted under the direction of Cyber Command Centre DGP Pranav Mohanty, ADGP A. Chandrashekar and DIG H.D. Anand Kumar. ACP L. Naveen Kumar and Inspector Siddappa led the team that carried out the arrests. The police investigation will now focus on tracing the absconding suspect, recovering the diverted funds and identifying the wider network behind the alleged fraud.
