How a probe into online fraud unearthed a well-oiled cyber money laundering syndicate in Rajasthan

In the initial part of the probe, investigators zeroed in on a bank account of a private firm registered in the name of two residents of Pune. In the second week of September, the team arrested Sahil Mudliar (25) and Kshitij Kshirsagar (27), who had opened a bank account for a hotel they started in partnership in the past. The account, which was lying dormant, as the hotel closed down for the lack of business, was activated by the duo at the behest of the third suspect in the case, Omkar Ram Naik (28), a resident of Sangli. The bank account witnessed fraudulent transactions to the tune of Rs 5 crore which was siphoned from cyber crime victims. With these three arrests, the police unearthed key links in the lowest layer of fraudulent account holders — Mudliar and Kshirsagar, who received a handsome commission and the second layer of their handler, Naik.

“The investigation revealed the funds received in these accounts were funneled to a suspect operating from Alwar in Rajasthan via one more middleman. These suspects further managed a large network of bank accounts which they had opened online. The funds used to be received in these accounts. The suspects used these funds to buy cryptocurrency to be sent to the digital wallets of cyber masterminds operating from Dubai, China, and Southeast Asia. Another way of fund transfer is through hawala operators after withdrawing money in cash. Both these ways make the money very hard to trace,” said an officer from Pimpri Chinchwad police.

The officer added, “When our team went to Alwar, we found that there were a large number of young technology savvy individuals who have turned to cyber crime for easy money. There are areas which have become hubs for specific types of cyber crimes, our probe revealed. While Alwar has been known as a cyber crime hotspot because of this, our investigation brought a very specific modus operandi. We found that these cyber criminals operated a well oiled money laundering machinery working in this manner. For our specific case, we had identified two suspects. We found that these suspects fled to Jaipur after our teams reached Alwar. In Jaipur, when our team was trying to arrest the duo on September 26, one of them tried to run over Assistant Inspector Pravin Swami with a car and fled. The team managed to arrest another suspect identified as Mayak Goyal (20), a resident of Kherli in Alwar.”

The officer further said, “Our probe suggests that the top layers of these rackets are operating from Dubai and China. The calls that cyber crime victims receive are made by Indians who have been fraudulently taken to South East Asian countries and have been subjected to cyber slavery. The money siphoning and funneling task is performed by perpetrators in India, a chunk of whom operate from Cyber crime hotspots in the country.”

Earlier in April this year, in a crackdown against a group of alleged cyber foot soldiers, the Pimpri Chinchwad police had arrested five young men in their 20s who worked as delivery boys and operated a network of 120 bank accounts which had been receiving funds from cyber frauds. These suspects also facilitated purchase of cryptocurrency to be sent to the wallets of their international masterminds for a meagre cut. The probe had revealed that these 120 accounts had together seen transactions of close to Rs 15 crores and had been flagged in at least 75 different Cyber crime cases reported across the country.