Mumbai Police have arrested 10 people in an interstate cyber-fraud investigation involving suspected losses of more than Rs 350 crore, after tracing the alleged operation from Mumbai to a luxury resort villa in Goa. The arrests were made by the Crime Branch’s Unit 5, with seven of the accused detained in Goa and three earlier arrests made in Mumbai.
According to the report by Loksatta, the alleged racket was being run from a villa in the Varca area of Goa. Police suspect that the network targeted people across the country and used a specially developed banking application to move defrauded money quickly between multiple bank accounts.
The application was allegedly created by the group to facilitate the transfer of money collected through different forms of inducement offered to victims. The report does not specify the exact investment, employment or other schemes used to attract victims, but says the application enabled the funds to be routed rapidly through different accounts.
Police said the seven people arrested in Goa are originally from Gujarat and are described in the report as having limited formal education. A 19-year-old is among those arrested. Investigators suspect that the alleged masterminds recruited these individuals by paying them monthly salaries and housed them in an expensive villa in Goa while the operation was conducted.
The Goa raid resulted in the seizure of 59 mobile phones, 19 SIM cards, nine laptops, 51 ATM cards and 12 passbooks, according to the report. The scale of the seized equipment indicates that investigators are examining the alleged network’s communications, account access and money-transfer arrangements as part of the probe.
Investigators have also found that more than 2,898 fake SIM cards were allegedly used for the fraud, the report said. The use of large numbers of SIM cards is now part of the police inquiry into how the network communicated with victims, managed accounts and moved funds across jurisdictions.
A court has remanded all seven accused arrested in Goa to police custody until 24 September. The custody period will allow investigators to question the accused and examine the seized devices, banking records, SIM cards and account documentation. The report did not state whether further arrests or recoveries had been announced.
