In a major crackdown on cybercrime, the Pimpri Chinchwad cyber police have arrested 11 individuals connected to three major online scams, in which victims were defrauded of over Rs2 crore.
One of the largest cases involved a 45-year-old software engineer from Sangvi, who lost Rs1.55 crore to a woman he met on a dating app in February last year. She posed as a brokerage executive and lured him with promises of lucrative returns to fund a flat purchase. “She extracted money in phases until November, transferring it across multiple accounts,” said police officials. The engineer lodged a formal complaint on Saturday.
Senior Inspector Ravikiran Nale stated that the probe led investigators to a private bank account in Solapur. “The account holder revealed it was used by three men under the guise of online gaming. We arrested Shubham Mantha (25), Swapnil Baheti (35), and Prashik Navghare (26) from Pune airport as they tried to flee to Nepal,” Nale confirmed. Further inquiry revealed Mantha and Baheti had links to cybercriminals based in China.
In another case, a local resident was duped of Rs3.3 lakh. Of that amount, Rs2.1 lakh had been transferred to an account in Silvassa. Police arrested the account holder, Salman Khan (32), who subsequently named Bundty Panchal (30), Intakhaf Khan (30), and Suraj Singh (34) as accomplices.
Earlier, on June 9, two men from Ahilyanagar were arrested for a Rs53 lakh “digital arrest” scam. Their interrogation led police to Avinash Palve, who reportedly managed mule accounts and used the proceeds of fraud to purchase cryptocurrency.
Police are continuing their investigation to identify additional suspects and recover the siphoned funds.
