ED Team Attacked in Delhi While Conducting Raids in Cyber Fraud Case, Officer Injured

New Delhi: An Enforcement Directorate (ED) team investigating a cyber fraud-linked money laundering case was allegedly attacked in Delhi's Bijwasan area on Thursday. An ED official was injured during the attack.

The ED team had gone to a farmhouse to raid a chartered accountant (CA) in connection with its probe into a cyber app fraud case. As the team arrived at the location, they were attacked by the accused, Ashok Verma and his brother.

One Enforcement Officer suffered minor injuries during the attack. The situation is under control, and searches are ongoing, officials said. Visuals from the spot showed a broken piece of furniture on the floor.

The agency has filed a police FIR about the incident at the local police station.

The ED said that the raids, launched by its High-Intensity Unit (HIU), followed an investigation that uncovered the laundering of illicit funds generated from thousands of cybercrimes, including phishing scams, QR code fraud, and part-time job scams.

“The Enforcement Directorate’s High-Intensity Unit (HIU) launched extensive searches today targeting top chartered accountants allegedly linked to a massive cybercrime network operating across India. The raids follow an investigation that uncovered the laundering of illicit funds generated from thousands of cybercrimes, including phishing scams, QR code fraud, and part-time job scams,” the ED said.

It was found that money earned through this cyber fraud was being laundered through as many as 15,000 'mule' accounts and withdrawn using debit and credit cards. Using these cards, it was found that money was remitted to top up virtual accounts on the UAE-based Pyypl payment aggregator, and subsequently, funds were used from Pyypl to buy cryptocurrency. The network was being run by some chartered accountants (CAs), sources claimed.

(Inputs from PTI)