New Delhi: A young man from Odisha is among eight persons, including a priest, arrested from three states for allegedly duping an elderly NRI couple of over Rs 14 crore through “digital arrest”.

With these arrests, the police claim to have busted a cyber-fraud racket with links to operators based in Cambodia and Nepal, officials said on Saturday, as reported by PTI.

Apart from Odisha, the accused were apprehended from Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, following a multi-state operation that exposed the well-coordinated network engaged in impersonating law-enforcement agencies and siphoning off victims’ money through mule bank accounts, officials said.

The accused have been identified as Divyang Patel (30) and Krutik Shitole (26) from Gujarat’s Vadodara, Mahavir Sharma alias Neel (27) from Odisha’s Bhubaneswar, Ankit Mishra alias Robin from Gujarat, Arun Kumar Tiwari (45) and Pradyuman Tiwari alias S P Tiwari (44) from Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi, and Bhupender Kumar Mishra (37) and Aadesh Kumar Singh (36) from Lucknow.

Patel, a BCom graduate, has passed the CA (Intermediate) exam. “He runs an NGO named Floresta Foundation and also provides financial services through his firm, Tatva Business Advisors,” the police said.

Shitole holds a diploma in information technology from New Zealand, while Arun Kumar Tiwari, is a BA graduate and works as a private data-entry operator outside the Income Tax Office in Varanasi. He also runs an NGO called Shivas Charitable Foundation, the police said.

Sharma, arrested from Bhubaneswar, is a BCom graduate. Pradyuman Tiwari works as a priest and performs private “puja” for devotees at the Varanasi ghats, it has been learnt. Ankit Mishra is also a BCom graduate and has worked previously as a sales executive with SBI Cap Securities, the police said. Kumar holds an MBA degree and was employed in a private job, officials claimed.

Singh has completed BA and used to provide tuition and private coaching to students.

It all started in December 22 after a 77-year-old woman, living in south Delhi’s Greater Kailash, received a call in claiming that a SIM card issued in her name was linked to a money-laundering case.

She was then placed on video calls by the fraudsters, who posed as officials from agencies such as the CBI and police, showed her a forged arrest warrant and conducted fake “court proceedings”.

It has been alleged that the victim and her husband were kept under round-the-clock video surveillance and threatened with dire consequences if they contacted anyone. Under fear and coercion, they were persuaded to transfer funds, including from fixed deposits and share investments, into so-called “RBI-mandated accounts” for “verification”, with false assurances that the money would be returned. A total amount of Rs 14.84 crore was transferred through eight transactions, the police said.

A special team was formed after an e-FIR was registered at the Special Cell’s IFSO police station in New Delhi on January 10 under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

The authorities tracked the money trail leading to several alleged mule-account holders through technical surveillance and an analysis of bank accounts,

The accused acted as facilitators by procuring and operating mule accounts and layering defrauded funds at the behest of the international syndicate, investigators said.

Seven mobile phones and chequebooks were seized during the operation. Further investigation is on to unearth the entire money trail and identify other conspirators.