Sohail Basheer Shaikh, a 26-year-old resident of Andheri, has been arrested for allegedly allowing cyber fraudsters to use his bank account to store Rs 5 lakh of money obtained from a Rs 90 lakh scam targeting an 87-year-old retired pharma company director.
The scam occurred between December 20 and January 1, when the elderly victim received a WhatsApp call from someone pretending to be a cybercrime officer from Delhi. The caller falsely claimed that the victim’s bank account had been implicated in a money laundering case and threatened arrest. Under duress, the victim transferred Rs 90 lakh to the fraudsters.
During the investigation, the police traced Rs 5 lakh of the defrauded money to Shaikh’s bank account. In exchange for letting the criminals use his account, Shaikh allegedly received Rs 10,000. He also handed over his cheque book and debit card, allowing the fraudsters to further move the money.
A team of police officers, led by Senior Inspector Nankumar Gopale, Inspectors Sandeep Kale and Rupali Chaudhri, and others, arrested Shaikh. Authorities have frozen 193 bank accounts linked to various suspects in the case, holding approximately Rs 27 lakh.
The victim lodged an FIR with the South Region Cyber Crime Police Station on January 23. This incident highlights how cybercriminals exploit unsuspecting individuals, using their accounts to clean stolen money and making them accomplices, sometimes knowingly and sometimes out of ignorance.
