Nagpur cyber police arrest eight in four fraud cases spanning three states

Cyber police in Nagpur have broken up several inter-state fraud gangs that, between them, cheated victims of crores of rupees by different methods. Over the course of four separate investigations, teams carried out raids in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, and eight accused have been taken into custody in all.

The largest case is a share trading scam worth Rs 2.87 crore. A man was drawn in by an Instagram advertisement and a Telegram group that steered him to a fake trading platform called "FTMO", which promised huge profits. He ended up investing Rs 2.87 crore in 33 separate transactions. Police say the gang has links with cyber fraud networks based in Hong Kong and Dubai.

The first arrest in this case came on October 15, when police picked up Kakasaheb Mohan Darunde, a resident of Patoda in Beed district. Police say he did not hold a personal bank account in the matter. Instead, he ran current accounts opened in the names of various private limited companies and handed them over to the principal handlers of the fraud.

Acting on a lead from Darunde, a police team stayed in Mumbai's Borivali area for six days. The accused were traced through technical analysis of internet banking IP logs of RBL Bank, IPDR, call detail records and location data. One of the men was then coaxed out of his house with the story that a food delivery parcel had arrived. With help from Borivali police, officers arrested Bhupendra Mahaveer Jain (32) and Yogesh Parasmal Jain (37), both residents of Beawar in Ajmer district, Rajasthan. A court has given police custody of both for three days.

Investigators found that the cheated money moved out of a corporate account at RBL Bank into 38 bank accounts through 39 transactions in only 24 seconds. The SIM card and handset linked to the mobile number used to operate the internet banking were recovered from the accused. Police also seized kits and chequebooks for 26 bank accounts, 11 mobile phones, 11 debit cards, three digital signature certificate tokens, two laptops, six Aadhaar, PAN and voter ID cards, and rubber stamps of 11 companies. The seized material is valued at about Rs 10 lakh. Police say the hunt is on for other absconding accused and for the international handlers.

The second case is a "digital arrest" fraud. A man was terrorised by a caller posing as an officer of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and was cheated of Rs 1.04 crore. Police arrested Dinesh Ambabhai Ravaria (32), a resident of Santacruz West, Mumbai, and Arvind Kanji Gala (45), who lives on Tardeo Road in the city. Both were caught in Mumbai on Saturday, and two mobile phones were taken from them. A court has remanded both to police custody for three days. Police have also managed to get Rs 8.50 lakh returned to the victim.

The third case involved Rs 50 lakh lost to AI voice cloning. A WhatsApp message carrying the photograph of a respected member of the community reached Nirmalkumar, father of Nikhil Nirmalkumar Nakhat of Hiwri Layout. A phone call followed in which the voice of the same person was imitated exactly. The caller said he was in trouble and needed money urgently. Tracing the mobile location, police arrested Netram Shriram Chadar (29), a resident of Nimavar Road, Indore, on October 28.

The filings available describe three of the four cases in detail. Police have not yet given particulars of the fourth case in the material received, and the search for the remaining accused and the overseas handlers continues.