Eight persons from two gangs, allegedly involved in committing cyber frauds, were arrested by the Surat Cyber Crime Unit in multiple raids, said officials familiar with the matter on Friday.
The eight accused had allegedly siphoned off money from 43 bank accounts, totalling Rs 19.70 crore, said cyber crime unit sources. According to the Surat Cyber Crime Unit sources, one of the arrested gang members is an accused in 67 cases that have been registered on the national cybercrime record portal, and the complainants are from 13 states, including Gujarat.
At least 10 teams of the Surat Cyber Crime Unit had carried out multiple raids in different parts of the city a few days ago. During a raid at Matador Trading Academy, owned by one Sahil Gajera, in Surat, the officials had apprehended Amroli resident Meet Shah (21) and found multiple bank account details in his mobile phone. On probing him further, Shah confessed about hiring two persons Rushi Sapkal, (21), and Yash Shinde (19), both residents of Maharashtra. Shah told the officials that he used to pay Rs 25,000 to both Sapkal and Shinde per month in lieu “of luring people to open new bank accounts”. After their arrest, the involvement of one more accused, Katargam resident Nilesh Solanki (34), also came to the fore, said the police. Solanki, who is friends with Shah, was also involved in committing cyber frauds, said police.
Police sources said that the accused persons opened 25 bank accounts, and made cash transactions worth Rs 3.35 crore through them.
Police are trying to find out the role of Sahil Gajera in the frauds. He has not been arrested as of now. During the raids, the officials seized bank accounts, credit cards, debit cards, chequebooks, mobile phones, and laptops of the accused.
In another case, a team of the Surat Cyber Crime Unit raided two firms — Crossworld IT Solutions, and Sonic Fincare Pvt Ltd — in Surat’s Sarthana area. During the raids, the officials arrested Jignesh Mangukia (28), Jitendra Vadodariya (32), Satish Mangukiya (31), Pradeep Kakani (25), all residents of Sarthana. The police found 18 bank accounts, opened with different companies and the accused had made transactions worth Rs 16.35 crore in the last year. The officials also seized fake company logos, letter pads, and other items from both these firms.
Police said that the cases against the accused persons were registered in Maharashtra , Gujarat , West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Bihar , Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Assam, Manipur and Tripura.
Story continues below this ad
During these raids, officials seized 24 mobile phones, 20 debit cards, 19 bank passbooks, 22 cheque books, 29 seals from multiple fake companies and three laptops among other things.
Surat Cyber Crime Police Inspector R R Desai said, “Both these gangs were providing bank accounts to the cyber fraudsters and used to take commission on the transactions. We are trying to dig out more details about the role of other cyber fraudsters involved with these gangs.”
