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 alleged mastermind remains absconding.
The arrests were made by the Cyber Command Centre police in connection with a complaint filed by A.S. Santosh of the university. The arrested people have been identified as Annayya, 25, from Devasandra Main Road in K.R. Puram; Buspalli Ravikumar Reddy, 26, from Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh; Ambaraaya, 39, from Kognur in Afzalpur taluk of Kalaburagi district; and Syed Wajihuddin Qadri, 25, from Telangana.
Police said they seized ₹8.50 lakh in cash and four mobile phones from the accused. The alleged mastermind, identified as Sunny alias David, is absconding and efforts are under way to trace him, officers said. Police added that 22 fraud cases had been registered against the network in different states.
According to the investigation, the fraudster created a fake WhatsApp profile on September 8 using the photograph and mobile number of deemed-to-be university chairman Chenraj Roychand. The fraudster then contacted the university’s accountant, Vinay Bhushan, and sought details of the money available in the bank account.
The accountant was subsequently instructed to urgently transfer ₹1.40 crore to a bank account provided by the fraudsters. The messages were believed to have been sent by the chairman, leading to the transfer from the institution’s account, police sources said.
The police account indicates that the fraud began with a malicious ZIP file sent to an employee of the institution. Investigators said the file was used to gain unauthorised access to the Chrome browser system and log in to WhatsApp Web. The fraudsters allegedly downloaded university data without the employee’s knowledge and monitored financial transactions for about 15 to 20 days before contacting the accountant while posing as the chairman.
Police sources said foreign IP addresses were used during the operation. The investigation also found that more than 60 fake or mule bank accounts across several states had allegedly been used by the network. Two of the arrested people allegedly provided mule accounts in return for commissions, while others helped withdraw money using cheques.
The police said Annayya allegedly opened fake accounts in the names of local people after offering them money, following instructions from Sunny. He then collected cheques and sent them to the alleged mastermind. Ravikumar Reddy and Ambaraaya allegedly used the cheques to withdraw funds.
The arrests followed technical analysis and operations in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. The accused were taken into custody and questioned as investigators continued tracing the absconding suspect, the money trail and the wider network of accounts allegedly used in the fraud.
The operation was conducted under the direction of Cyber Command Centre Director General of Police Pranav Mohanty, Additional Director General of Police A. Chandrashekar and Deputy Inspector General H.D. Anand Kumar. Assistant Commissioner of Police L. Naveen Kumar and Inspector Siddappa led the team, police said.
