Six held for ₹2.65 crore scam targeting retired Air Vice Marshal in Gurugram

Police seized 90 ATM cards and 16 phones. The accused allegedly supplied 200 bank accounts to a Dubai-based syndicate and routed funds abroad.

Six people were arrested from three states for allegedly operating a network of 200 bank accounts that a Dubai-based syndicate used to cheat a retired air vice marshal of ₹2.65 crore in an investment scam, police said on Monday.

The 79-year-old victim was shown fictitious profits of ₹61 crore over 13 months. Police recovered laptops, SIM cards, cheque books and stamps. (File photo)

One accused was arrested from Ghaziabad on Saturday, while the remaining five were held during simultaneous raids at two apartments in Bahadurgarh and Delhi a day later. Investigators recovered three laptops, 16 mobile phones, 90 ATM cards, 42 cheque books, 35 SIM cards, stamps of four firms, and a passport bearing a Dubai visa from their possession.

The accused were produced before a local court on Sunday and remanded in two-day police custody.

According to assistant commissioner of police (cybercrime) Gaurav Phogat, one of the accused had made multiple trips to Dubai and was in touch with the syndicate there. “He supplied at least 200 bank accounts and their kits to the gang there, which targeted victims across India, including the Gurugram resident duped of ₹2.65 crore,” he said.

Police said he directed another accused to open a shell firm and a bank account for it, paying him ₹60,000 for the account. The access was then given to the Dubai-based suspects. Of the total defrauded amount, ₹6 lakh was transferred into this account. “The suspects kept a 5% commission and routed the remaining amount to other accounts held by the Dubai syndicate. They repeated this process each time defrauded money came into the account,” Phogat added.

Police said the accused rented an apartment for ₹17,000 a month, from where they operated the network. The same address was used to register shell firms to open more current accounts for the Dubai-based gang. Three of the accused were allegedly paid between ₹15,000 and ₹20,000 per month to help remit money abroad through banking channels.

The 79-year-old victim, who lives with his family in Gurugram’s Sector 54, was first contacted by the suspects on December 17, 2023. Over the next 13 months, they allegedly showed him a fictitious profit of ₹61 crore through a phishing application used to track investments. He lodged a complaint on January 30 last year, following which an FIR was registered under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code at the Cybercrime police station (east) against unidentified suspects.