Ahmedabad police have arrested four men who allegedly supplied mule bank accounts to a Dubai-linked network involved in online share market investment frauds, with investigators tracing more than 80 cybercrime complaints across 15 states and transactions exceeding Rs 50 crore.
The case began with a complaint from an investor who allegedly lost Rs 67.9 lakh after being promised brokerage-free share trading and daily returns of up to 20%. The Ahmedabad cybercrime branch said the victim was contacted through multiple WhatsApp numbers and persuaded to invest through two fake applications, JB X One and ID-QSB.
According to police, the fraudsters used a forged certificate carrying the name, logo and seal of the Securities and Exchange Board of India to make the operation appear legitimate. The complainant allegedly invested Rs 47.1 lakh through JB X One after being told that the platform did not charge brokerage fees.
The victim was later approached by a woman who allegedly posed as a representative of ICICI Securities and offered returns ranging from 5% to 20% a day through block trading. Police said the victim was persuaded to download ID-QSB and invest a further Rs 20.8 lakh. The application displayed a fictitious balance of Rs 74.3 lakh.
When the investor attempted to withdraw the money, the operators allegedly demanded 20% in short-term capital gains tax and an additional 4% health and education cess. The victim then realised that the investments and profits displayed on the applications were fabricated, police said.
The arrested men have been identified as Irfan Shaikh, 41, of Bavamanpura in Vadodara; Soheb Jojavarwala, 37, of Shalimar Park in Vadodara; Shehzad Ajmerwala, 35, of Moti Sodagar ni Pol in Jamalpur, Ahmedabad; and Ishtiyak Riyawala, 38, of Rukhanpura near Astodia Darwaza in Ahmedabad.
Police allege that the four men acted as links in a chain that collected and transferred bank accounts to the wider fraud network. Shaikh allegedly handed over his account to Jojavarwala for a commission. Jojavarwala allegedly collected more than five accounts, including Shaikh’s, and passed them to Ajmerwala.
Ajmerwala allegedly sourced additional bank accounts and transferred them to Riyawala, who police suspect played a key role in sending the accounts to operators based in Dubai. Investigators said Riyawala was found with more than 30 bank-account kits.
The account trail has expanded the case beyond the original complaint. Ahmedabad police said the accounts recovered during the investigation were linked to more than 80 cybercrime complaints filed across 15 states. The police investigation is continuing into the people who operated the fake investment applications, recruited account holders and managed the alleged cross-border flow of funds.
