2 min readAhmedabadUpdated: Feb 5, 2026 08:18 PM IST
The Cyber Centre of Excellence (CCoE) on Thursday said it has arrested three persons from Gujarat and two from Maharashtra for allegedly carrying out transactions to the tune of Rs 930 crore acquired from 1,535 cybercrime victims spread over 25 states and 3 Union Territories through 80 mule bank accounts.
The arrested accused have been identified as Abdul Hafeez Panwala and Mushtaq Abdul Khalid Khanani, both from Gir-Somnath district and Gagji Manji Rajput, of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and two others from Thane, Maharashtra, including Shabbir Mohammad Hanif Bhadela and Mohammad Taha Shabbir Bhadela.
According to the CCoE, a team led by Detective Inspector B M Choudhary conducted a raid in Surat, based on a tip off. The team found that the accused persons, as part of a pre-planned criminal conspiracy, and with the intention of defrauding victims, opened bank accounts in their own and other people’s names, received proceeds of cybercrime in the bank accounts, withdrew the deposited money from Dubai through Forex pre-paid cards, and delivered money to an international syndicate.
During the investigation, the CCoE found a total of 1,535 complaints filed against the 80 bank accounts involved in the case. These complaints were filed across 25 states and 3 union territories and involved a total sum of Rs 930 crore.
On the modus operandi of the gang, the CCoE statement said, “The cyber criminals committed fraud by creating false identities and contacting potential victims through SMS, WhatsApp or Telegram and either lured or threatened them with various scams including digital arrest, investment fraud, UPI fraud, deposit fraud, loan fraud and job fraud. The money stolen from these victims would be deposited in bank accounts opened in the name of various people who were paid commissions to let the gang use their documents to operate these “mule” accounts.
Further investigation is underway.
The complaints were reported from Gujarat (264 complaints), Telangana (97), Jharkhand (12), Andhra Pradesh (53), Arunachal Pradesh (3), Assam (16), Bihar (43), Delhi (73), Haryana (56), Kerala (55), Karnataka (156), Maharashtra (215), Rajasthan (89), Tamil Nadu (106), Bengal (51), Goa (10), Nagaland (3), Odisha (26), Punjab (28), Uttar Pradesh (101), Uttarakhand (13), Madhya Pradesh (26), Chandigarh (2), Himachal Pradesh (7), Tripura (2), Chhattisgarh (11), Jammu and Kashmir (15) and Meghalaya (2), the statement said.
