23-year-old arrested for ‘duping’ Chandigarh man of Rs 3.26 lakh

The arrest has been made in connection with an FIR registered on December 25, 2025, at Cyber Crime Police Station, Chandigarh. (File Photo)

Cracking a fake traffic challan-related cyber fraud, the Cyber Crime Police of Chandigarh has arrested a 23-year-old accused who allegedly duped a city resident of Rs 3.26 lakh and laundered the stolen money by converting it into gift cards and online gold.

The arrested accused has been identified as Devansh Goyal, 23, a resident of Gurugram, Haryana. The arrest has been made in connection with an FIR registered on December 25, 2025, at Cyber Crime Police Station, Chandigarh.

According to the complaint lodged by Ramesh Singh Rawat, a resident of Maloya, Chandigarh, he received a WhatsApp message from an unknown mobile number containing a link entitled “MPparivahan APK,” which appeared to be related to a pending traffic challan. Believing the message to be genuine, the complainant clicked on the link.

Soon after, his mobile phone started malfunctioning and became unresponsive, indicating the installation of malicious software. He then began receiving multiple OTPs, calls and messages from unknown numbers. Subsequently, unauthorised transactions were detected from his credit cards.

Police said Rs 1,36,294 was fraudulently withdrawn from the complainant’s AU Small Finance Bank credit card, while Rs 1,90,000 was illegally debited from his ICICI Bank credit card. The total amount cheated came to Rs 3,26,294. It was alleged that important banking messages, OTPs and transaction alerts were deliberately deleted from the victim’s mobile phone to delay detection of the fraud.

During the investigation, the Cyber Police found that the defrauded amount was first used to purchase gift cards, which were subsequently redeemed to buy online gold. The gold coins were later delivered in the Delhi-NCR region, indicating a planned attempt to conceal and launder the proceeds of crime.

Police have also found that SIM cards used in the fraud were linked to the delivery of the gold, helping police trace the accused.

The accused was arrested from Gurugram. During the arrest, the police recovered an iPhone 13 Pro Max along with a mobile number allegedly used in the commission of the cyber fraud.

Police officials said the case is at an initial stage and further custodial interrogation of the accused will help trace the complete money trail, and identify and apprehend other members of the cyber fraud racket.

DSP (Cyber Crime) A Venkatesh said that people should avoid clicking on unknown links or downloading APK files, especially those claiming to be related to traffic challans, Parivahan services or other government departments, as such messages are commonly used to trap unsuspecting victims.