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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Two arrested in K'taka for assaulting minors, uploading CSAM content
Bengaluru (PTI): Two men were arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two minor girls, recording the acts on mobile phones and uploading the videos online as child sexual abuse material, police said on Thursday.
The accused have been identified as Kiran Kumar (29), hailing from Chitradurga district, and Aditya M K (20), hailing from Shivamogga district, they said.
A probe was initiated after information was received from the NCRP portal regarding a suspected instance of creation of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) for online dissemination, police said.
Accordingly, a case was registered at Kaggalipura Police Station under relevant sections of the IT Act on May 10, they added.
Investigation revealed that two minor girl victims were exploited and videos were created and uploaded to the internet. The child victims have subsequently recorded their statements as per procedure and further necessary legal steps have been taken, Pronab Mohanty Director General of Police, Cyber Command, said in a statement.
Based on the statements of the victims, the accused persons, who allegedly assaulted the minors, recorded the acts on mobile phones and uploaded the videos online, were arrested, he said.
Following the probe, sections 65(2) (rape) and 70 (gangrape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with relevant sections of the POCSO Act, have been added to the FIR, police said.
Officials collected relevant information and on May 12, arrested the accused persons and seized three mobile phones belonging to them, in which the videos had allegedly been recorded, he said.
The accused were later produced before the court and taken into police custody for further investigation, he added.
According to him, in CSAM cases, police usually apprehend offenders who have downloaded such content or have kept them in their possession after obtaining them from elsewhere, usually the internet.
"The present case is one of the very few instances where content creators and uploaders have been apprehended," Mohanty added.
