New Delhi: It started with a message that appeared harmless. A resident of south east Delhi was asked to update his courier delivery address by opening an APK file and making a payment of just Rs 2. He did not know that the seemingly routine process would give cybercriminals access to his banking credentials.Within minutes, his account was hit twice. An amount of Rs 1.9 lakh was withdrawn in one transaction and another Rs 1.9 lakh in a second transfer. Nearly Rs 4 lakh had disappeared.But when investigators began tracking the money, they found that the stolen cash had taken an unusual route. Instead of being transferred directly to another bank account, around Rs 3.9 lakh was used to recharge a prepaid smart fuel-card customer ID.That discovery opened the trail to an alleged interstate cyber-fraud network in which stolen money was allegedly converted into fuel-card balances and later encashed through petrol pumps.DCP (Southeast) Vineet Kumar formed a team under the supervision of Additional DCP Utkarsha. The team arrested three men, Nasir Hussain (34), Sokeen (27) and Ashish Arya (33), in connection with the case. Police identified Nasir as the alleged mastermind and are probing a suspected financial trail of around Rs 10 crore.The investigation began on May 7, when Jitender Kumar Gupta received the APK file disguised as a courier address update request. After he entered his banking credentials while making a Rs 2 payment, unauthorised transactions were carried out from his account.Subsequently, police registered an e-FIR and began tracing the transactions. The payment used to recharge the fuel-card customer ID became the crucial lead. The account was linked to two trucks, while further scrutiny revealed transactions worth around Rs 15 lakh through the associated fuel cards.Investigators examined telecom records, SIM issuance details, point-of-sale information and documents used for fuel-card enrolment.A woman whose identity was allegedly used to obtain a mobile connection told police she had never taken the number and suspected her identity had been misused during SIM porting.The video KYC conducted for the fuel card helped investigators identify Sokeen. The probe took police through several locations in the Mewat region, including Nuh, Nagina and Pahadi, as well as Bharatpur. Nasir was eventually traced to Rajasthan. He and Sokeen were arrested on Sept 28.The trail eventually led police to Ashish Arya, a former retail business executive. Police alleged that Arya had enrolled the fuel card without physically verifying the documents. During questioning, he identified Sokeen as the person whose video KYC he had conducted and admitted that he had not properly matched the submitted photograph with the individual appearing on camera.Police are also probing Nasir’s allegation that he paid Arya for arranging the fuel-card enrolment.More than 100 suspected fuel cards have since been identified. Police said questioning indicated that around 150-200 fraudulent cards may have been prepared, each reportedly carrying a limit of Rs 7.5 lakh.According to investigators, the accused allegedly obtained truck owners’ Aadhaar, PAN and registration documents through a transport platform on the pretext of arranging bookings. The documents were allegedly manipulated, with photographs and addresses altered using AI-assisted tools, before being used for fuel-card enrolment and video KYC.Police are now probing the wider network, including other fuel cards, the operators and the broader financial trail.
