Mumbai's Mulund police have arrested six people in an interstate cyber-fraud investigation that began with a single Rs 10 lakh impersonation complaint and expanded, police say, into a network allegedly linked to 255 complaints involving about Rs 72 crore.
Source: The420
The case began on July 30, when an accountant received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number displaying his company owner's photograph. Believing the message was genuine, he transferred Rs 10 lakh as instructed, police said. After he realised he had been deceived, a case was registered at Mulund police station under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act.
Investigators found that Rs 5.50 lakh of the money had been transferred to a bank account in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, and later withdrawn through a cheque. A Mumbai Police team travelled to Meerut and arrested three suspects. Questioning and technical analysis then led to three more arrests from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, Vadodara in Gujarat and Kandivali in north Mumbai, according to police. Officers recovered Rs 5.50 lakh and five mobile phones.
The wider scale emerged from the seized phones, police said. One suspect's device contained details of 11 bank accounts allegedly connected to 182 cyber-fraud complaints across 21 states. Another suspect's phone held information on 49 more bank accounts linked to 73 further complaints — 255 complaints in total. Police have clarified in reporting that the Rs 72 crore figure is the wider money trail associated with complaints linked to those accounts; it does not mean the six arrested have been convicted of personally stealing the entire amount.
Police allege the network bought and sold bank accounts and SIM cards through Telegram groups, installed malicious APK files on some account holders' phones to control devices and manage funds, and routed proceeds through multiple accounts before withdrawing cash or converting funds into USDT cryptocurrency. A suspected overseas link, reported as China-based in some accounts, remains a police allegation under verification — it has not been established in court.
Source: Inshorts / Free Press Journal
Investigators say they are still establishing the precise role of each suspect and tracing additional account suppliers, handlers and ultimate beneficiaries. All allegations in the case remain unproven, and no conviction has been reported.