Kozhikode: The Kozhikode Rural District Crime Branch on Wednesday secured the custody of YouTuber and former Bigg Boss Malayalam star Mohammed Diligent Blesslee (30) for questioning in connection with an online task-based job scam pegged at ₹114 crore.

Blesslee was arrested on December 9 upon his arrival from China at the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport and has been in judicial custody since then.
He was produced before a Kozhikode court, which granted his custody to the investigators on Wednesday.

Police said he is the first key accused to be taken into custody in the case, which is alleged to have defrauded victims from Koduvally, Thamarassery, Kodenchery and Koodaranji in Kozhikode district.

Victims were lured and groomed through Telegram groups, where they were initially offered fees for making promotional videos. They were later induced to part with their own money to “unlock” or withdraw the amounts they had ostensibly earned through these tasks. Based on complaints registered so far, police have pegged the total fraud at ₹114 crore.

The first FIR was registered by the Kakkur police in June 2025. As similar complaints began emerging from other parts of the district and the scale of the fraud became evident, the investigation was handed over to the Rural District Crime Branch.
Of the eight suspects identified so far, police had earlier arrested two middlemen, while several others fled abroad after the registration of FIRs.

Blesslee, a native of Kollam, was arrested in connection with a specific case in which a victim lost ₹22 lakh. Of this, at least ₹5.25 lakh was credited to his bank account, with the remaining amount routed to the accounts of his associates, said Crime Branch DySP Benny V V.

When his name cropped up in the investigation, Blesslee had already left the country for China, prompting police to issue a lookout circular against him.

Blesslee, the runner-up of the fourth season of the reality show, is suspected of having rerouted the money he received and that in the mule accounts -- bank accounts hired or bought for a fee -- before it was converted into cryptocurrency and transferred out of India.

Blesslee’s prominence as a reality show personality and social media influencer was allegedly used to lend credibility to the scheme and gain the trust of online job seekers. Police said efforts are underway to trace and arrest the remaining accused, including those who have fled abroad.