Staff Reporter
Guwahati: In a significant development, the involvement of Assam's Rumi Kalita in the case of digital arrest of S. P. Oswal, an industrialist of Ludhiana, was established by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Jalandhar Zonal Office. Sleuths of the ED arrested Rumi Kalita from Guwahati and secured a transit remand. Subsequently, she was produced before the Special Court, PMLA, in Jalandhar, which granted ED custody of 10 days, up to January 2, 2026.
Teams from the ED, Jalandhar Zonal Office, conducted search operations on December 22, 2025, at 11 locations across Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Assam under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, in connection with money laundering related to the digital arrest case of S. P. Oswal, an eminent industrialist of Ludhiana. Various incriminating documents and digital devices were recovered and seized during the search operations.
The ED had initiated the investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by the Cyber Crime Police Station, Ludhiana, under various provisions of BNSS, 2023. Subsequently, nine more FIRs were registered by various police authorities regarding cybercrime/digital arrests by the same gang.
The ED investigation revealed that during the digital arrest of S P Oswal, the fraudsters impersonated officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and used forged official and judicial documents to force Oswal to transfer Rs 7 crore to various accounts. Out of Rs 7 crore fraudulently transferred from the Ludhiana industrialist, an amount of Rs 5.24 crore was recovered from the accounts and was transferred back.
It was also established that the remaining funds were transferred to various mule accounts maintained in the names of various entities and persons, including labourers or delivery boys, which were either further diverted or withdrawn in cash immediately.
During the ED investigation, it was also found that the amounts cheated from victims were immediately diverted by the group of criminals into various mule accounts, and the credentials of those accounts were being used by one Rumi Kalita in lieu of a certain percentage of the cheated money as her share. The ED team proceeded to Guwahati to investigate the involvement of Rumi Kalita.
Various incriminating pieces of evidence gathered during the search in Guwahati showed that she was deeply involved in the diversion and layering of proceeds of crime. Following the search, Rumi Kalita was arrested under provisions of PMLA on December 23, 2025. The ED team produced her at the CJM Court in Guwahati and secured her transit remand.
Earlier, searches were conducted by the ED in Guwahati on January 31, 2025, in connection with the case, which resulted in the recovery and seizure of incriminating documents.
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