Gujarat: ED arrests 4 in Rs 100-Cr cyber-fraud cases

New Delhi, Oct 10 (PTI) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested four men in Gujarat as part of a money-laundering probe into multiple cyber-crime cases, in which people were allegedly duped to the tune of more than Rs 100 crore.

The Surat sub-zonal office of the federal probe agency has taken Makbul Abdul Rehman "Doctor", Kaashif Makbul "Doctor", Mahesh Mafatlal Desai and Om Rajendra Pandya into custody under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the ED said in a statement on Friday.

It is alleged that Makbul "Doctor", his sons Kaashif Makbul "Doctor" and Bassam Makbul "Doctor", Desai, Pandya and some others "defrauded" gullible people through various cyber frauds, such as digital arrests, forex trading, threatening innocent individuals by sending fake notices of law-enforcement agencies like the ED and even in the name of the Supreme Court.

The accused, the ED alleged, opened bank accounts in the name of their employees, associates and some hired people for collecting "proceeds of crime" estimated to be more than Rs 100 crore.

For operating these bank accounts, the accused obtained pre-activated SIM cards and later, "laundered" the funds by converting those into cryptocurrency and routing the cash through hawala operators to evade regulatory scrutiny, the agency said.

The money-laundering case stems from an October 2024 FIR filed by the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Surat Police. PTI NES RC