Six held in Nagpur for cyber fraud of Rs 9.88 crore, including lawyer; Rs 4.2 crore recovered

Nagpur Rural Police have busted an interstate gang in a major cyber fraud case and arrested six accused. According to police, Rs 9,88,83,999 was allegedly withdrawn from a person's bank account through RTGS.

On realising the fraud, the complainant first approached the cyber cell and Nagpur Rural Police, and then also lodged a complaint at Baroda police station. The complainant is a resident of Baroda and has been identified as Ramesh Kumar (name changed). The accused, Mukesh Kumar, and his gang are alleged to have withdrawn about Rs 9.88 crore from the account through RTGS.

Those arrested are said to include Mukesh Kumar Shamshankar Mishra (41) of Mira Road, Thane; Hanuman Kumar Khakhanu Ram (26) of Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh; Ravi Kumar Ramvriksh Yadav (24) of Shivani, Uttar Pradesh; Azim Rafique Mithani (26); Rakesh Shailesh Singh (44) of Ranchi, Jharkhand; and Ankur Ashok Kumar Goswami (30) of Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.

Mukesh Kumar is the main accused in the case. He practises law in the Bombay and Delhi High Courts. He is said to have planned the entire fraud.

The investigation has found that the accused set up several companies, including Thatasha Private Limited, Shree Fintech and Rectrikar Private Limited. Large sums from the cyber fraud were routed through these companies, using mule bank accounts. There are indications of organised layering of the money and large-scale money laundering.

Some of the accused worked in the banking sector for about six to seven years. Some of them were also working in 2024 at Renet Technology Private Limited, against which a case of financial fraud of about Rs 3,400 crore is registered in Indore.

During the investigation, police got a lead on the interstate gang. Separate teams of the rural police then left for Delhi, Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh, and arrested all six accused from different states. Rs 4,20,61,162 of the defrauded amount has been recovered.

The action was carried out by teams of the crime branch, the cyber cell and Baroda police station, under the guidance of Senior Superintendent of Police Harsh Poddar, Additional Superintendent of Police Anil Mahaske and Assistant Superintendent of Police Shashant MM.

It has also emerged that the accused used various financial services companies and payment gateways to divert the defrauded money through payouts. The money was then withdrawn in cash and sent through hawala. After layering, it was rotated through more than 1,000 bank accounts, and the funds were then used for payouts through various fintech companies. It has also emerged that, after the money was sent to different accounts and layered, gold was bought at various places in Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh. Police are investigating further.