Surat: The Surat City Cyber Crime Cell has arrested Priyank Vyas, a 34-year-old MTech-qualified engineer, from Mira Road in Mumbai for allegedly posing as a government cyber-forensic specialist and cheating a Surat-based petrochemical businessman of Rs 1.24 crore, news agency IANS reported. Police said two more people in Surat were allegedly cheated in the same way, taking the suspected total to nearly Rs 2 crore.
Source: IANS via Asia Post
According to the police, Vyas allegedly displayed a fake identity card bearing the national emblem that named him as “Dr Priyank Samirbhai Vyas – Forensic Cyber Crime Specialist, Cyber Forensic Department, Mumbai”, claimed his car carried a government board, and used a UPI ID named ‘fslcyberforensic’ and an email address named ‘fslmumbai’. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cybercrime) Bishakha Jain said he also used the title ‘Dr’ and a South African phone number to gain credibility, The Mainstream reported.
Source: The Mainstream
The alleged fraud began in November 2025, when chartered accountant Rohan Kelawala introduced Vyas to the businessman, who had approached him for banking and loan-related work, police said. Kelawala allegedly described Vyas as a cyber-forensic expert and cryptocurrency specialist. Vyas first sought Rs 18 lakh, claiming it was needed to renew the IP address of a terminal he had developed, promised to return Rs 30 lakh within 60 days, and offered the complainant a 20 per cent partnership in his business. The Rs 18 lakh was sent in cash to the accountant's office on January 21, police said.
Between November 2025 and October 2026, the accused and his associates allegedly collected Rs 1,29,25,100 (yaani about Rs 1.29 crore) from the complainant and his friend in 21 instalments, through cash, bank transfers, Google Pay, angadia channels and USDT, police said. Only Rs 4.70 lakh was returned, leaving Rs 1,24,53,900 (yaani about Rs 1.25 crore) unpaid. Police said further sums were demanded as gas fees, transaction and withdrawal charges, citing a Rs 15 crore server fund, a fund from Argentina, blocked Ethereum and a wallet audit that had supposedly found 17 errors.
Investigators said one of the complainant's friends allegedly paid Rs 74.90 lakh and another Surat resident Rs 7.5 lakh, and they suspect the accused collected nearly Rs 2 crore from victims in the city. Police alleged the money was not invested at all: Vyas allegedly bought a Mumbai property worth around Rs 1.5 crore, purchased a BMW and paid about Rs 80 lakh as token money for another flat. Police seized two mobile phones, two laptops, two hard disks, two pen drives, three cryptocurrency wallet cards, the fake identity card, other documents and two cars, including the BMW and a Honda City, valuing the seized items at Rs 9.65 lakh.
The case was registered at the Surat City Cyber Crime Police Station on October 30 under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 and Section 66(D) of the Information Technology Act, and a team led by Police Inspector N R Patel traced Vyas to Mira Road through technical analysis and human intelligence, police said. Police also said Vyas and Kelawala had themselves earlier been cheated on a platform named GlobalSwiftPay, which showed large dollar balances that could not be withdrawn, and that the two allegedly then used the same method against others. Kelawala is absconding and efforts to arrest him are under way. Police have urged people to verify investment platforms and brokers before transferring money, avoid offers promising guaranteed or unusually high returns, and never pay extra amounts in the name of withdrawal or processing fees. All the allegations are yet to be proved in court.