The gang members, educated young men, ran the racket in a “corporate-style set up” misusing their digital know-how to defraud citizens, said a police officer

NAVI MUMBAI: The police have arrested 12 members of a nationwide cyber fraud and illegal online gaming racket which used hundreds of mule bank accounts and defrauded people of nearly ₹84 crore. The gang members, educated young men, ran the racket in a “corporate-style set up” misusing their digital know-how to defraud citizens, said a police officer.

According to the Navi Mumbai police crime branch, the racket came to light when the crime branch arrested Imran Shaikh, 22, from the central business district of Belapur on October 14. The police had been acting on a tip off that Shaikh was running an illegal online gaming and betting operation using multiple bank accounts and digital platforms.

Deputy commissioner of police (crime) Sanchin Gunjal said, “Their modus operandi was to lure victims by promising higher returns (on investments). Add them into various groups and convince them to invest in stocks, online gaming, and job opportunities.” Investigations revealed that they had been using three betting portals to defraud people.

According to the police, they had received 393 complaints in the past few months nationwide, on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCCRP), linked to this cyber fraud racket involving ₹83.97 crore.

Police officials said the accused are educated and digitally skilled. “Three of the arrested accused are graduates, seven have passed Class 12 and misused their technical knowledge for committing online frauds. They had been living in Maharashtra since June this year and ran the racket with a corporate-style setup,” said the assistant commissioner of police Ajay Landge.

The crime branch is taking the help of a financial auditor to trace the movement of the money, identify the layered transactions (having gone through multiple channels), and ascertain the full scale and nature of the fraud. “This is one of the biggest coordinated cyber frauds exposed in recent months,” said Sunil Shinde, senior police inspector of the Navi Mumbai central crime unit.

The arrested accused have been identified as Imran Usmani Minhaj Shaikh, 22, Hitesh Punaram Devangan, 28, Sunil Shravan Devangan, 23, Tomeshkumar Mohit Uike, 22, Rahul Raju Devangan, 21, Ankit Ramesh Singh, 23, Abhishek Sanjay Singh, 23, Harishkumar Madanlal Markam, 27, Arpit Santendrakumar Sonvani, 23, Rajat Dilip Sharma, 24, Lal Babu Rajeshwarram Kumar, 21, Chapra, Bihar and Krishna Anshu Amit Vishwas, 22. The police said barring Shaikh, a Nerul resident and Vishwas from Delhi, the others are from different parts of Chhattisgarh, like Durg, Bhilai, Rajnandgaon and Balod.

Shaikh’s interrogation led the police to his associates. Following several raids in Dombivli and Pimpri-Chinchwad, the police found a system equipped with high-end digital resources being used to defraud people. The police seized 52 mobile phones, seven laptops, 99 debit cards, 64 passbooks, and a Tata Safari SUV, collectively valued at ₹18 lakh. The police also found that the gang was using 886 mule bank accounts to transfer and conceal the exploits of their frauds. Several of these bank accounts had been made by misusing peoples’ identities.