Eight of gang that kept Gandhinagar doctor under ‘digital arrest’ for 103 days, cheated her of Rs 19.24 crore, held: Police

After convincing her of being named in FEMA and PMLA cases, the accused had allegedly made the woman withdraw her FD

Ahmedabad | August 2, 2025 01:08 IST

On how they cracked the case, a statement from the State Cyber Crime Cell said they followed the money trail to bank accounts into which the victims had been made to deposit the money (Express Photo)

A few weeks after they placed a Gandhinagar-based doctor under “digital arrest” for 103 days, threatening her into handing over Rs 19.24 crore to them, eight members of a gang of alleged conmen have been arrested, the State Cyber Crime Cell of the CID said on Friday.

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The accused have been identified as Yashpalsinh Bharatsinh Chauhan (24), Naaz Ibrahim Razsumra (23), Nilesh Jaman Raank (32), Jaydev Bankesh Nirmal (20), Ameer Hussain Anwar Manek (21), Shabbir Hanif Samvat (23), Rashid Ramzan Pathan (21), and Ismail Bachu Khumbiya (29). They were arrested from Rajkot, Amreli and Jamnagar with the help of local police and brought over to Gandhinagar, police said.

On how they cracked the case, a statement from the State Cyber Crime Cell said they followed the money trail to bank accounts into which the victims had been made to deposit the money. They had received alerts that more than Rs 50 lakh had been withdrawn from eight of the accounts through self-cheques, police said.

Based on this banking information, three teams were formed by Detective Inspector ND Ingrodiya. These teams sought help from local police, tracked down the accused persons in the three cities, and placed them under arrest, said police.

Police are yet to recover the money that the cybercriminals cheated out of the victim since they have spread it over a vast network through angadia (informal courier) firms, Superintendent of Police (SP) Dharmendra Sharma said. The search for other unknown accused persons is also underway.

Case background

On July 28, the State Cyber Crime Cell said it was investigating a case where at least five accused persons, identifying themselves as a telecommunications official, police sub inspector, two public prosecutors, and a notary officer, had contacted the complainant through different mobile numbers and accused her of money laundering. They cheated her of Rs 19.24 crore in the guise of verification of her properties, police had said.

The accused told the woman that a case of money laundering had been registered against her. The accused then sent a fake letter in which the complainant had been named as accused in a purported case of violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) as well as under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

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They warned the victim against talking to anyone about the matter, said police.

According to a statement from the State Cyber Crime Cell, “The accused persons then kept their hapless victim under digital arrest for 103 days, from March 15 to June 26, through WhatsApp video calls. (She) was told that a man in civilian dress was keeping an eye on her and if she wanted to get out of the case, she would have to provide information about all her properties.”

It further said, “After the complainant provided the information about the properties, the accused persons made her withdraw her Fixed Deposit (FD), sell the gold in her house and take a loan against the gold in her bank locker. They made her sell her house and shares in her stock market portfolio, and got her to transfer a total amount of over Rs 19 crore to different bank accounts on a fake receipt of ‘Financial Supervisionary Freezing Certificate’ on the false promise that the money would be returned to her after investigation.”
Investigation in the case is underway.

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