PUNE: Officials of the Economic Offences Wing of the city police crime branch were able to successfully freeze assets worth Rs 339 crore from people accused in economic offences.
Similarly, police officials have also recovered Rs 3.74 crore in cash from the accused in economic offence cases.
The information was shared by Commissioner of Police (CP), Pune, K Venkatesham at the annual crime press conference.
Speaking about cybercrime cases at the conference, police officials said that they were successful in arresting 100 people in 175 cases of cybercrime lodged in 2018.
The cyber crime cell of the city police crime branch refunded the amount of Rs 4.18 crore to victims of cyber fraud cases.
Police officials said that prompt response from complainants and police officials in handling the cases helped in refunding the amount.
Speaking about different cybercrime cases, the police said that apart from debit/credit card fraud cases, there was a rise in the number of cases through social media sites. In all, 13 cases were lodged of crimes through social media sites and 15 persons were arrested in relation to these cases.
With rising complaints of cybercrime cases, Venkatesham said that as a separate police station for cyber crime cases was set up recently, it will accelerate the detection of cybercrime cases.
According to police officials from cyber crime cell, the cyber frauds were related to loan, jobs, matrimonial, lottery, card cloning, cryptocurrency fraud and other e-commerce frauds. In 2018, the city police froze 240 Bitcoins and 91 Ethereums in different cases of cryptocurrency frauds.