Meerut, Sept. 7 -- Five members of a gang that stole a sum of around Rs 58 lakh from a government clerk after putting him under 'digital arrest' last year were arrested in Pilibhit on Friday, cyber police in the district said. All five hail from Delhi and Noida, and Rs.3.50 lakh in cash, nine mobile phones, ten forged Aadhaar cards, and two chequebooks were recovered from their possession. They were reportedly working for a larger organised network whose masterminds are in Cambodia and Laos. Jagmohan Saini, a Jail Line resident who works as a clerk in the district jail, had told police that he was targeted by unknown callers posing as officials of the CBCID, Mumbai Crime Branch, and even the Supreme Court. The fraudsters claimed that his Aadhaar card had been misused to issue fake SIM cards and linked him to unlawful activities. Between August 9 and 22, 2024, Saini, 55, was kept under "digital arrest" through continuous video and audio calls and coerced into transferring Rs.57,89,776 to certain bank accounts. Police said the amount was part of a land transaction that Saini had made. The five suspects-Manish Kumar, Vikas Verma, Rajendra Sharma, Sanjay Bobby Deshwal, Prashant Chauhan, originally from Farrukhabad but lives in Delhi-were caught near a petrol pump on Puranpur Road. During interrogation, they admitted they were part of a larger organised network. The gang reportedly exploited poor and economically vulnerable people by purchasing or coercing them into giving up their bank accounts, passbooks, and chequebooks to create "mule accounts." The defrauded money was routed through these accounts, rapidly withdrawn or transferred, with a portion reportedly funnelled abroad to masterminds based in Cambodia and Laos. The arrest was made by Cyber Police Station in-charge inspector Khurshid Ahmed, SOG in-charge Umesh Tyagi and other officials. Superintendent of police Abhishek Yadav said "digital arrest" had no legal standing and was purely a tool of intimidation....