Five men detained for handling crores from digital‑arrest scams across 20 states

The Central Bureau of Investigation has added five more names to its list of suspects in the digital‑arrest money‑laundering saga. The arrests were carried out after a series of coordinated raids in 89 locations spanning 20 Indian states, following a Supreme Court order to curb the burgeoning crime. The men – Sikant Bastwar, Pankaj Damade, Arif (known as King Bhai), Harish Purushottam Yadav (Harry) and Shashank Singh (Ravi) – are accused of orchestrating the flow of illicit money obtained from victims of fake digital arrests. By opening a dummy bank account and using sophisticated layering methods, they allegedly moved the funds across several accounts, while a malicious APK installed on the victim’s phone intercepted banking alerts, facilitating silent manipulation of the accounts.