MUMBAI: A 51-year-old Palghar resident linked with at least 182 cyber fraud cases registered across the country has been arrested by cyber police. The accused, Vijay Chaudhary, used forged documents to establish shell companies or trusts, opened bank accounts in their name and used the accounts to receive defrauded amounts in lieu of a 3% commission, said police.
Chaudhary was arrested in pursuance of a compliant lodged by a constable working with the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS), who lost ₹17 lakh in an online fraud.
In his complaint, the constable alleged that in September 2024, he received an invite to a WhatsApp group related to stock market investments.
“The constable joined the group with 108 members and followed the so-called tips on investment. Some time later, he received a link to an app through which he was asked to invest in shares based on the tips,” said an officer from the cyber police station.
After the constable invested around ₹17 lakh via the app, he realised that he could not withdraw the money. He then approached the cyber police station, where a case was registered for cheating and impersonation for cheating and forgery.
During the probe, the cyber cell learnt that the bank accounts where the constable’s payments were routed were in the name of a certain Sam Network Technology and the account holder was the 51-year-old Vijay Chaudhary. Police then traced and arrested him.
A cyber cell team led by joint commissioner of police, crime branch, Lakhmi Gautam, and senior police inspector, Nandkumar Gopale, questioned the accused, which revealed that he was operating at least 10 bank accounts. These ten accounts were linked with at least 182 cyber fraud cases from across the country; the account in the name of a gaushala alone was linked with 93 cyber fraud cases, the police learnt.
“Chaudhary had opened these accounts in the name of various shell companies and trusts and forged documents to register them,” said the officer quoted earlier.
The Palghar resident shared the details of such accounts with cyber frauds operating from overseas, who asked their victims to deposit money in them. Associates of a certain Elli then withdrew money from the accounts and gave Chaudhary a commission, the police found.
“Chaudhary got a good amount of commission which ran up to 3%,” said the officer. While he got 2%, his female friend got 1% of the amounts credited in bank accounts they operated, the officer added.
Entities registered by Chaudhary, in whose name he operated the bank accounts, included Sam Network Technology Private Limited, Nakoda Gaushala, Sai Sakhi Enterprises and Sam Realities.
“On the Nakoda Gaushala’s bank account, there are 93 complaints from all over the country, including Rajasthan, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh,” said the officer.
Chaudhary used to work as a transporter and driver earlier and started supplying bank accounts to frauds after he defaulted on EMIs and his vehicle was seized by the bank, said police.