Farmer’s suicide over ‘digital arrest’: Vadodara police arrest 2 men who provided 438 SIM cards to cyber fraudsters

Sushil Agrawal, Superintendent of Police (SP), Vadodara, said the investigation into the phone records of Atul Patel, 58, who died by suicide in Dabhoi taluka’s Kayavarohan, led the police to the accused, who had facilitated cyber fraudsters based in Cambodia. The SIM cards used to threaten Patel had been registered in Surat but were active in Cambodia, while a second number active in Bengaluru had also been recently used to defraud a 65-year-old man of Rs 50 lakh in Bengaluru.

Patel died by suicide in his house on November 17, allegedly after being held in digital arrest for a day by a cyber fraudster. (Express photo)

Agrawal said, “The mobile phone of the deceased was sent for Forensic Analysis, and the numbers from which he had been receiving calls were traced. It was found that the number is active in Cambodia. The Vadodara rural police has already launched a hunt for one more accused and a look-out notice has been issued in case of the one accused who is outside India (in Cambodia).”

The police added that the two accused provided interstate SIM cards as well as for fraudsters abroad. “We have busted a network… They had promised someone 538 SIM cards and they delivered 438 so far. Other names have come to light and the accused are being traced. We are also attempting to make a SIM card recovery,” the officer said.

Patel died by suicide in his house on November 17, allegedly after being held in digital arrest for a day by a cyber fraudster. The criminal had contacted Patel, identifying himself as Inspector Gaurav Grover of the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of Delhi and threatening him with arrest in an alleged Rs 40 crore narcotics scam. Patel’s nephew, Ansh, had told the police that the victim had been “worried and tense” but did not share the details with his family members.