The Cyber Crime Branch on Thursday arrested three cyber conmen, including the kingpin Sandeep Pandey, for allegedly duping people under the guise of offering large donations to their NGOs. The arrests come after three other gang members were caught last month, bringing the total number of arrests to six.
According to Additional DCP (Crime) Shailendra Singh Chauhan, the gang defrauded an NGO founder of ₹18 lakh, pretending to offer a Rs20 crore donation to the organization. The victim was misled into transferring funds under the pretext of processing fees and formalities.
The fresh arrests took place in Mumbai and include:
Sandeep Pandey (37) – kingpin of the operation, a native of Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh, residing in Mumbai
Manish Pal (34) – auto driver from Mumbai who registered a fake firm for financial transactions
Anil Kumar Maurya (27) – from Thane, originally from Sultanpur, UP
All three held private jobs but collaborated in a well-planned cyber fraud network led by Pandey. The gang created a fake firm under Manish’s name and used its bank accounts to launder the defrauded money.
The Cyber Crime team is continuing the investigation to uncover other potential victims and fraudulent schemes connected to the group.