The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested an alleged 'RTGS agent' working for a cybercrime gang in the digital-arrest case of a Goa woman who was extorted of about Rs 2.6 crore, the agency said in a statement reported by IANS on Monday. Mukesh Kumar Pukhraj Jain, alias Mukesh Bhai, was arrested on October 16 by the ED's Panaji Zonal Office under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), and a Special Court (PMLA) in Goa remanded him to ED custody. He is the sixth accused arrested in the case, the ED said.

According to the ED, the victim was kept on a video call, made to believe she was under criminal investigation, and coerced into transferring about Rs 2.6 crore into accounts falsely described as 'Secret Supervision Accounts'. The agency alleged that Jain arranged bank credits into the network's accounts as an RTGS agent, received cash in return from those controlling the network, and kept a commission — and that he admitted in his PMLA statements that he knew the money came from cyber frauds, including digital-arrest frauds. These are the ED's allegations; the case is under investigation.

The ED said the extorted money entered a network of companies set up to receive cyber-fraud proceeds, convert them into cash and then into foreign currency, and that the network's accounts figure in over 300 victim complaints and more than 160 FIRs across over 20 states and Union Territories, with reported losses of about Rs 417 crore (Rs 417.49 crore in the agency's earlier statement reported by The Hindu). The investigation began from an FIR by the Cyber Crime Police Station, North Goa.

The ED also alleged Jain destroyed records and mobile handsets after searches and gave evasive replies. Digital arrest has no legal validity in India; victims should report such calls to the cyber helpline 1930 or cybercrime.gov.in.

Sources: IANS (ED Panaji statement), The Hindu.