Nine arrested: Gujarat Cyber Centre of Excellence busts 4 investment fraud cases valued at Rs 35.4 cr

The Cyber Centre of Excellence (CCoE) of Gujarat police Tuesday said it has busted four investment fraud cases and arrested nine accused persons, including one from Maharashtra, for allegedly luring people to invest in fake schemes, building their trust by giving minor returns and then cheating them.

While the four cases amount to Rs 35.4 crore, complaints were filed from over 22 states and 5 UTs  against the various bank accounts used in these frauds on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCCRP), taking cumulative proceeds of crime crossing Rs 564 crore, the agency said.

The biggest of the four cases pertained to a complainant from Unjha in Mehsana district who was allegedly cheated of Rs 26.66 crore. According to officials, two persons – Rajeshkumar alias Kapil Prahlad Chaudhary (34) and Dharmendrakumar Harshad Rawal (35) – were arrested in the case.

According to a statement from the CCoE, the accused persons reached out to the complainant via WhatsApp offering a lucrative investment offer and sent a fake web page link of FINALTO stock trading website. After the complainant invested $500, the accused gave him a return of $101(Rs 43,500).

Later, they managed to extract Rs 26.66 crore from the complainant between August 7 and October 7, 2025. They then allegedly sent the money abroad to what the CCoE said was an international cybercriminal racket, in exchange for commission.

While the amount in the case is Rs 26.66 crore, the CCoE said that they found 12 bank accounts in the names of the two accused, reported in complaints on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCCRP), where transactions to the tune of Rs 87.84 crore had taken place.

In the second case, the accused persons added the complainant in a WhatsApp group named Premji Invest, masquerading as investment consultants. They then made the complainant download an application and “invest” Rs 2.32 crore, promising massive profits.

The CCoE found that the money had been deposited in a bank account owned by a shell firm named Radhe Automobiles. There were at least 22 other complaints filed against these bank accounts on the NCCRP by victims from nine states with the value of cheating at Rs 8.45 crore. Two Ahmedabad residents, Rahul Mukesh Patel and Prashant Mannappa Badigar, were arrested in the case.

In the third case, the CCoE booked and arrested four persons from Tharad town of the newly-created Vav-Tharad district for duping a complainant of Rs 3.9 crore. The arrested have been identified as Rama Lalji Pandya, Darshankumar Haresh Purohit, Amarat Hameer Joshi and Raghuram Bhura Pandav. According to a statement from the CCoE, the accused persons approached the complainant over WhatsApp, claiming to be registered investment brokers and asked him to download ‘Rockcreeak’ mobile application. They then persuaded the complainant to make an investment. They allegedly told the complainant that they were under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the US and claimed that their accounts had been frozen. Luring the complainant with “charges” to withdraw the “invested” money, the accused allegedly had the complainant and his daughter deposit Rs 3.9 crore.

Investigation by the CCoE found that the accused persons had opened 126 bank accounts in the name of a company named Darshan Parlour. Against one bank account, they found 30 complaints from 10 states on NCCRP with the transaction amount of Rs11.83 crore.  Against the 126 bank accounts, the CCoE allegedly found 428 complaints from 23 states and five UTs, totalling an amount of Rs 460 crore.

Further investigation is underway.

In the fourth case, the CCoE on Tuesday said they had arrested Sandip Punjaji Tayade from Thane, in Maharashtra. The accused had been alleged to have cheated the complainant of Rs 2.52 crore.

A statement said that the complainant had seen stock market news videos on YouTube wherein under the video, there was a link of a company named SY Yashwi. Upon clicking the link, the complainant was allegedly contacted by the accused on WhatsApp and said he was in touch with a firm called Yashwi Securities Pvt Ltd, which he claimed was a registered broker with SEBI. The complainant was then given stock market trading tips, added to a WhatsApp group called HY-50insider Stocks-trading and duped into downloading an application called IndoBrit Yashwi-TradeHive. The accused then allegedly lured the complainant into investing Rs 2.52 crore and thus cheating the victim.

The CCoE said that the apprehended accused, Sandip Punjaji Tayade along with co-accused Vikrant Mishra and Shrikant Maruti Shinde, had registered a company called M/s Suryamoto EV India Pvt Ltd and opened a bank account in its name. The investigation allegedly showed that there were 20 complaints from 12 states, with the cheating amount reaching Rs 7.74 crore. There are seven FIRs in five states against the accused persons. Further investigation is underway.