Cyber criminal arrested from Arunachal Pradesh

Braving sub-zero temperatures and difficult mountain terrain at a height of 10,000 feet near the Line of Actual Control with China, a Delhi Police team arrested a 24-year-old cyber-criminal from Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang on December 31, ending the hunt for a man wanted for defrauding at least 15 people of crores of rupees.

The accused, identified as Babidul Khan, also known as Bobby, was the alleged mastermind of an elaborate investment fraud operation that had left victims across Delhi cheated of significant sums. His arrest required a police team to travel to one of the most remote and inhospitable corners of the country, in freezing conditions, during the last hours of the year.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, Delhi South-West, Amit Goyal, confirmed the operation and described the conditions his team had navigated. “One of our teams reached Arunachal Pradesh’s inaccessible mountains at a height of around 10,000 feet amid freezing temperatures. The team braved these conditions to search for a cyber thug,” Goyal said.

The DCP added that the police station in Tawang, from where the operation was coordinated, sits just 16 kilometres from the Line of Actual Control with China. The geography of the area presented significant challenges. The terrain is steep, the roads are difficult, and in late December, the cold in Tawang is severe. That the team located and apprehended the accused under these conditions makes the operation notable even by the standards of long-distance cybercrime arrests.

Khan had apparently believed that the combination of distance, terrain, and weather made Tawang a safe refuge. He was wrong.

Investment fraud operations of the kind Khan allegedly ran follow a familiar pattern. Victims are contacted through social media or messaging platforms, offered high returns on investments, shown initial small gains to build trust, and then pushed to commit larger sums. Once enough money has been collected, the accused vanish, leaving victims with no way to recover their funds or trace the perpetrators. Khan is accused of running such a scheme targeting at least 15 individuals, with the total amount cheated running into crores of rupees.

The decision to pursue him to Tawang reflects a broader shift in how Delhi Police’s cybercrime units are approaching fugitive accused who flee to distant states. Cyber criminals increasingly rely on geography as a shield, moving to remote areas where local infrastructure makes tracking difficult and where they expect pursuit to be unlikely. The Tawang arrest signals that this calculation carries risk.

The operation began on December 31. The timing meant the team spent the last day of the year in the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh, working through freezing conditions to locate and secure the accused. Khan was arrested and will face proceedings in Delhi courts in connection with the fraud cases registered against him.