Surat (Gujarat), November 3: The Surat City Cyber Crime Cell has arrested Priyank Vyas (34), an MTech-qualified engineer, from a residential apartment in Mira Road, Mumbai, for allegedly cheating three Surat residents of nearly Rs 2 crore by posing as a government cyberforensic officer, police said on Monday. According to DCP (Cybercrime) Bishakha Jain, Vyas allegedly introduced himself as a forensic cybercrime specialist holding a doctorate in cybercrime and displayed a fake identity card bearing the national emblem and the words 'Satyamev Jayate' to win the victims' trust.
Source: The Times of India
Police said Vyas also used the prefix 'Dr', claimed to travel in a car carrying a government board, and operated a UPI ID named 'fslcyberforensic' and an email account named 'fslmumbai'. DCP Jain told The Times of India that Vyas had himself earlier been cheated on an online investment platform, globalswiftpay.com, along with co-accused Rohan Kelawala, and that the two then allegedly adopted a similar method to cheat others. Kelawala, a chartered accountant, is absconding, police said.
Source: IANS via Asia Post
How the alleged fraud ran, November 2025 to October 2026
According to police, the alleged fraud began in November 2025, when Kelawala introduced Vyas to the complainant, a Surat petrochemical businessman who was seeking help with banking and loan-related work. Vyas allegedly promised high returns through forensic trading, IP servers and cryptocurrency transactions, initially seeking Rs 18 lakh on the claim that an IP address of a terminal developed by him had to be renewed. Between November 2025 and October 2026, the complainant transferred Rs 1,29,25,100 through cash, bank transfers, Google Pay, angadia channels and USDT, of which only Rs 4.7 lakh was returned, leaving Rs 1,24,53,900 unpaid. Investigators said fabricated screenshots of cryptocurrency transactions and fund transfers were allegedly shared to keep the victims convinced.
Source: IANS via Asia Post
Police said two more Surat residents were allegedly cheated in the same way: the complainant's friend paid Rs 74.90 lakh and another resident Rs 7.50 lakh, taking the total suspected fraud to nearly Rs 2 crore. Police allege the money was not used for any trading or cryptocurrency transactions, and was instead spent on a Mumbai property worth around Rs 1.5 crore, a BMW car and about Rs 80 lakh paid as token money for another flat. These are police allegations, not court findings.
Source: The Mainstream
Police said they seized two mobile phones, two laptops, hard disks, pen drives, three crypto wallet cards, the fake cyberforensic identity card, bank documents and two cars — a BMW and a Honda City. A case has been registered and the investigation is under way; police said they are checking whether more people were cheated. The accused is entitled to the presumption of innocence until a court decides otherwise.
Source: The Mainstream