Surat man held for aiding Rs 10 crore transfer to Pakistan-based crypto wallet
Ahmedabad (PTI): Police have arrested a resident of Surat in Gujarat, identified as Chetan Gangani, for allegedly helping a gang of cyber fraudsters transfer Rs 10 crore to a Pakistan-based cryptocurrency wallet, officials said.
Gangani was taken into custody as part of an ongoing investigation into ‘mule’ bank accounts being used by scamsters to launder proceeds of cybercrime, Gujarat police CID-Crime's Cyber Centre of Excellence said in a release on Saturday.
The accused had links with six persons, arrested on November 3 from Morbi, Surendranagar, Surat and Amreli districts, for allegedly routing Rs 200 crore to Dubai-based cybercriminals using nearly 100 mule accounts, the release said.
A mule account is a bank account used by criminals to receive, transfer, or launder illicit funds with or without the knowledge of the account holder, according to officials.
Gangani helped the cyber gang members arrested earlier convert Rs 10 crore into cryptocurrency USDT, or Tether, and then send it to a Pakistan-based wallet through his “BitGet crypto wallet” over four months, the release said.
He received a commission of 0.10 per cent on each USDT, it said. The police did not disclose the total monetary value of his commission.
According to the police, the six persons held earlier had provided 100 mule accounts to cybercriminals across Gujarat. These accounts were used in 386 cases, including digital arrests, task frauds, investment frauds, loan frauds and part-time job scams, registered across the country.
Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi, who handles the home portfolio, on Saturday said the CID-Crime has cracked down on a “major cross-border cybercrime network”.
“In a major breakthrough, the Gujarat Cyber Crime Center of Excellence has dismantled a large-scale 'Mule Account' network operating across multiple districts Morbi, Surendranagar, Surat, and Savarkundla with direct financial links traced to Pakistan,” he said on X.
The cyber crime team “meticulously tracked the money trail” through seven layers, from initial Indian accounts to cryptocurrency (USDT) transactions, he said.
“The probe revealed transfer of Rs 10 crore to a Pakistani Binance USDT account, which has cumulatively received over Rs 25 crore from Indian accounts and this gang being one of the major sources,” Sanghavi added.
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Rajasthan: ACB court sends former IAS Subodh Agarwal to 2-day police remand in JJM scam
Jaipur (PTI): Retired IAS officer Subodh Agarwal, arrested in connection with the alleged Rs 960-crore Jal Jeevan Mission scam, was produced before an ACB court on Monday, which sent him to two days' police remand.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau had sought a three-day remand for further questioning in the matter, but the court granted two days' custody.
The order was passed by the ACB Court-1.
A team from the ACB arrested Agarwal on Thursday in connection with the multi-crore Jal Jeevan Mission corruption case.
He was sent to a three-day police remand on Friday. On completion of the remand period, the ACB produced him in court.
Agarwal was serving as the additional chief secretary of the public health engineering department when the alleged scam took place.
Some firms had allegedly secured tenders by submitting forged completion certificates in connivance with officers. Last month, the ACB arrested nine persons, including senior engineers and retired officials, in connection with the scam. Earlier, the ACB had arrested contractors.
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