After a four-month-long investigation, the Cyber police have finally nabbed two youths who allegedly masterminded a ‘digital arrest scam’ and swindled ₹18 lakh from the bank accounts of a woman and her son. The suspects were identified as Mohammed Shanish of Thamarassery and Mohammed Janeesh of Madavoor.

The police squad zeroed in on the two following a tip-off received from Mohammed Jasi, a Koduvally native who was earlier arrested in connection with a similar online fraud in Kozhikode. Police sources said the two men pretending as Enforcement officers kept the victims under ‘digital arrest’ for three days with the claim that they were investigating a case related to their unaccounted deals.

“The money was withdrawn from the account of the woman and her son in different instalments in February 2025. The victims were forced to believe that a case was registered against them for handling unaccounted money,” said a senior police officer associated with the investigation. He added that the suspects were tracked using details of the bank accounts that they opened to receive the swindled money.

Police sources said the suspects were found to have involvement in many similar financial crimes in and around Koduvally. The suspicious transactions that they carried out using the secretly opened bank accounts will be examined in detail to expose other suspects in the network, they added.