In a significant breakthrough against organized cybercrime, Surat police have dismantled a large fraud syndicate, arresting 25 suspects over the past three months. Among those detained on November 11 were key members of the operation: Ajay Italiya, Vishal Tummar, and Jalpesh Nadiyadara, all arrested in Surat. Additionally, Hiren Barwaliya was apprehended at Mumbai airport while enroute to Dubai.
However, authorities are still searching for several individuals involved in the syndicate, including Milan Vaghela, Jagdish Ajudiya, Ketan Vekariya, and Dashrath Dhandhaliya, who remain at large.
According to Bhavesh Rojiya, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime), the investigation has traced financial transactions totaling Rs 111 crore, funneled through 623 bank accounts linked to the gang. This marks one of the largest cybercrime busts in India, with 370 active accounts used to collect money from victims of online scams. These operations spanned across multiple accounts, with funds being initially transferred to mule accounts.
The extensive three-month investigation, led by Ahmedabad’s Cybercrime Cell, uncovered that the fraudsters used “rooted devices”—electronic devices compromised with Taiwanese technology—to bypass security measures. This setup allowed the scammers to reroute One-Time Passwords (OTPs) and phone calls to remote devices, potentially operated from locations in Taiwan or Dubai.
The gang relied heavily on mule accounts, typically opened using identities obtained from unsuspecting daily wage earners. These individuals were either coerced or paid to provide identification documents, which enabled the operators to open accounts in their names. Debit cards linked to these accounts were often dispatched overseas, enabling cash withdrawals in locations like Dubai.
Funds from the scams were further laundered by converting them into cryptocurrency or transferred through hawala channels, making it difficult for authorities to trace the money trail. In recent raids conducted across Surat’s Mota Varachha and Sarthana areas, police confiscated a wide range of evidence, including laptops, computers, 198 bank passbooks, 139 debit cards, 336 SIM cards, 35 cheque books, 16 bank kits, and 36 mobile phones.
This operation builds on a series of previous investigations into similar fraud schemes, with these suspects already linked to at least 200 FIRs across 15 states and Union Territories. As the investigation continues, authorities are working to apprehend the remaining suspects and uncover more details of the international cybercrime network.
