Gurugram cyber fraud suspect nabbed at Mumbai airport

Priyanshu Dewan, assistant commissioner of police (cybercrime), said that a lookout circular had been issued against Harmit Singh Malik

An alleged hawala operator was nabbed from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai while he was trying to flee the country in a cyber fraud case of ₹6.14 crore, police officers said on Monday.

Most of the stolen ₹6.14 crore was suspected to be later remitted out of India, mainly to Dubai and China, in the form of cryptocurrency, investigators said. (Representational image)

Police said the suspect, Harmit Singh Malik, age 30, a resident of Anand Vihar, Delhi, was one of the prime suspects behind the fraud in which ₹6.14 crore was siphoned off from the official bank account of an IT firm in Gurugram and was then transferred into 141 different bank accounts across the country in December 2023. Most of the stolen money was suspected to be later remitted out of India, mainly to Dubai and China, in the form of cryptocurrency, investigators said.

Priyanshu Dewan, assistant commissioner of police (cybercrime), said that a lookout circular had been issued against Malik. “Based on the LOC, security agencies detained him at the airport in Mumbai when he tried to board a flight to fly out of the country on April 19,” Dewan said.

The agencies later alerted Gurugram police following which a team arrived there and arrested Malik the next day. Malik was sent to police remand till Tuesday, said officers.

Malik’s five associates, Shantanu Anand, Kartik Sharma, Tarun Kumar Dudeja, Rakesh Sharma, and Yash Sharma, were arrested previously, said investigators.

Investigators said that it was not yet clear how the suspects managed to siphon off money from the official account of the firm that created gaming applications. They said that the six arrests including that of Malik are related only to one beneficiary account in which ₹10 lakh out of ₹6.14 crore was transferred. Officials suspect that the mastermind of the gang involved in the crime was suspected to be operating from outside the country. According to police, more than 30-40 suspects were yet to be arrested in the case.