In a significant breakthrough against cross-border online fraud, the Ahmedabad City Cyber Crime Branch has arrested two men from Maharashtra and Karnataka for allegedly supplying hundreds of mobile SIM cards to a Chinese cyber gang involved in extorting money through the ‘digital arrest’ scam.
The arrests followed a complaint filed in June by a city resident who was duped of Rs86.22 lakh. The victim was contacted by a caller impersonating a law enforcement officer, falsely accused of money laundering. The caller sent a forged Supreme Court summons, kept the victim under 24-hour surveillance via video calls, and threatened arrest unless a large sum was transferred.
Under the leadership of Police Commissioner G S Malik, Cyber Cell officials combined technical analysis and human intelligence to trace the SIM cards used in the crime. Investigators found that the cards were acquired in bulk through a fake company and handed over to the Chinese gang.
The accused have been identified as Rishikesh aka Rishabh Bhalchand Hasurkar (27), originally from Kolhapur, Maharashtra, now living in Dombivli, Thane, and Suresh Rajubhai Gudimani from Belagavi district, Karnataka, also based in Dombivli. Both were already lodged in Panna District Jail, Madhya Pradesh, on other cyber-fraud charges when Ahmedabad police formally took custody.
Investigations revealed the duo set up three shell companies—Star Multi Solution, Hasurkar Ventures Pvt Ltd, and Heiqian Multi Management Pvt Ltd—under others’ names. They obtained about 550 SIM cards, reactivated and recycled blacklisted cards, and eventually supplied around 2,500 SIMs to an agent known only as ‘HR Danny’ at Mumbai International Airport.
These SIM cards were then used by the Chinese cyber gang to conduct ‘digital arrest’ scams across India. In these scams, victims receive calls from impersonators posing as officials, are sent fake court documents, and terrorized through video surveillance to extort large sums of money.
The accused also face charges in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, including offences under the Information Technology Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita related to fraud and forgery.
