A few weeks after a Gandhinagar-based doctor was defrauded of ₹19.24 crore by a gang posing as government officials, the State Cyber Crime Cell of the CID has arrested eight suspects from Rajkot, Amreli, and Jamnagar.
According to a media report, the accused—Yashpalsinh Chauhan (24), Naaz Razsumra (23), Nilesh Raank (32), Jaydev Nirmal (20), Ameer Manek (21), Shabbir Samvat (23), Rashid Pathan (21), and Ismail Khumbiya (29)—allegedly kept the victim under “digital arrest” for 103 days through continuous WhatsApp video calls. They impersonated officials from telecom, police, and law departments, and accused the woman of money laundering under FEMA and PMLA laws.
Police said the victim was isolated, threatened, and forced to sell her house, gold, stock shares, and break her FDs. The money was transferred to multiple bank accounts based on a fake “Financial Supervisionary Freezing Certificate,” with a false promise of refund after investigation.
The case was cracked by tracing ₹50 lakh in suspicious withdrawals from eight accounts. Three police teams were formed to arrest the accused with local police help.
However, the stolen money is yet to be recovered, as much of it was routed through angadia (informal courier) networks. The search for more accused is ongoing, said SP Dharmendra Sharma.