COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore city cybercrime police have arrested five members of a gang involved in online fraud and seized more than 250 SIM cards from them.Police said Srinivasa Perumal, 35, of Vadavalli in Coimbatore city, working as a manager in a construction company in Abu Dhabi, was in Coimbatore in September 2025. He received calls through Facebook messenger from strangers on Sept 28, 2025 who told him that he could earn crores of rupees if he invested in Bitcoins and online trading. Believing their words, Perumal invested Rs 27.45 lakh in multiple instalments. Later, he came to know that he had been cheated by them.Perumal lodged a complaint with the Coimbatore city cybercrime police in December 2025. Police registered an FIR against the cyber fraudsters. During investigations, police came to know that the Perumal had transferred the money to the bank account of Vasanth, 20, of Arivozhi Nagar near Kovaipudur in the city. Police verified the account belonging to a private bank and there was a transaction of around Rs 1.5 crore in the account in a year.Police arrested Vasanth on June 24 and grilled him. Vasanth told them that he had been asked to open the bank account by his friends Ajal, 22 of Kovaipudur and Janagan,23, of Konganagiri in Tirupur district. Police arrested Ajal and Janagan on June 26 and interrogated them. Investigations revealed that the trio obtained SIM cards from Bharath, 26, of Palladam in Tirupur district and Udhayakumar, 38, of Mayiladuthurai. Bharath was arrested on June 27, and Udhayakumar was arrested on July 7.Police said the arrested five people were working as agents for the cyber fraudsters. But they did not meet the cyber fraudsters who might have operated from the northern part of India or from other countries. They obtained SIM cards by using other peoples’ Aadhaar cards and registered the SIM cards on Pushbullet mobile app which helped the cyber fraudsters to receive the one-time passwords without the knowledge of the bank account holder.“The masterminds were only using the Telegram app to talk to the agents who helped the cyber fraudsters for a meagre amount. Vasanth rented out his bank accounts to Ajal who worked as commission agent. Janagan worked to open bank accounts and received SIM cards, and Bharath used to collect Aadhaar cards from the general public and obtained SIM cards without the knowledge of the public,” said a police officer.
