4 min readPuneMar 17, 2026 10:31 PM IST
First published on: Mar 17, 2026 at 10:24 PM IST
Four men had rented a sprawling villa in Lonavala for 10 days. From there they would order food online from high end restaurants. What seemed like the description of a holiday at a hill station was in fact an elaborate fund siphoning operation for Hong Kong based cyber masterminds committed by four persons aged between 19 and 24 years.
A probe by Pimpri Chinchwad police’s Cyber Crime Police station into a Rs 97 lakh share trading fraud case registered last year revealed an elaborate money siphoning operation conducted from a plush villa in Lonavala. While the four suspects were each assigned a different task, two cloud linked cameras were installed in the house which, investigators believe, were used by the Hong Kong based operatives to keep a watch on these suspects’ movements.
Pimpri Chinchwad police commissioner Vinoy Kumar Choubey said, “The probe by Cyber crime police station shows the use of a rented villa in a tourist place like Lonavala to carry out their criminal activity and web cameras used by international operatives to keep a watch on them. It also reveals complex financial deception to siphon funds obtained in cyber frauds. These details show the level of manipulation and layered operations of these cyber fraudsters. We will continue to closely investigate these cases and dismantle their network.”
The investigation by the Cyber Crime police station had started in December last year, after a 56-year-old resident of Thergaon in Pune was duped of Rs 97.7 lakh in an online share trading fraud where he was made to believe he had earned multifold profit on his “investments”. The investigation team had earlier arrested two suspects in the case and successfully ensured freezing Rs 18 lakh from the lost funds.
It came to light that Rs 8.25 lakh from the fraud was moved into a current account in the name of a commercial entity registered to one Monil Atulkumar Modi, a resident of Mehsana in Gujarat. Technical analysis revealed this account holder frequently moved across different states, making it difficult to trace him. Recently Assistant Inspector Pravin Swami received information about Modi’s location in Lonavala. Acting on this, Police Inspector Ravikiran Nale sent a team led by Sub-Inspector Vaibhav Patil for the search operation.
The search took police to a villa which was listed on an online home stay booking website, where the suspects had booked the accommodation. In the raid conducted at the house, the police team arrested Modi (24), Ravi Gokul Prasad Jat (21) and Rudrapal Singh Gajendrasingh Chauhan (22) both from Madhya Pradesh and Hansh Kailas Verma (19) of Borivali in Mumbai. The police seized one laptop, seven mobile phones, 14 debit cards, two cloud linked web cameras and five full kits of bank accounts containing linked SIM cards and debit cards from them.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Dr Shivaji Pawar said, “Suspect Monil Modi had been kept under constant surveillance through web cameras and was receiving cyber fraud funds into his Small Finance Bank account. Jat and Chauhan were then siphoning these funds to other accounts, and they too were being watched via webcams. Verma was keeping watch on all of them and giving local logistic support.
Our probe suggests that Hong Kong based operatives were watching these suspects. We have also found out that Modi was getting one percent commission, while Jat and Chauhan were told they were employed by a Chinese company and were receiving salary.”
A probe by Pimpri Chinchwad police into the online sale and purchase of mule accounts on social media platforms had revealed that the cyber racketeers were arranging for air travel and stay at lavish hotels and resorts for the mule account holders after luring them with promises of high returns. In some of the cases, it had also come to light that cloud linked web cameras had been installed in hotel rooms where mule account holders were held, allowing both local handlers and their Chinese masterminds to monitor their every move in real time.
Four accused caught at the villa with the items seized from them. (Source: Express Photo) 
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