Suspect supplying mule accounts to cyber fraud gang arrested

Investigators said that cyber conmen had duped ₹1.12 crore from Raj Kumar Thakur, 52, an accountant of a footwear manufacturing firm in Faridabad in May this year after trapping him in stock market investment fraud.

A22-year-old suspect was arrested from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel international airport in Ahmedabad soon after he landed there for allegedly supplying mule accounts to Chinese nationals operating cyber fraud gangs from Dubai, Faridabad police said on Tuesday.

The suspect was identified as Elis Najmuddin Hirani, a resident of Unn in Gujarat’s Surat.

The suspect was identified as Elis Najmuddin Hirani, a resident of Unn in Gujarat’s Surat. Police said he was in Dubai on a tourist visa for a month and airport authorities in Ahmedabad detained him soon after he returned on Saturday and alerted the Faridabad police as a look-out circular was issued against him. Elis was presently on a five-day police remand for detailed interrogation till Friday.

Investigators said that cyber conmen had duped ₹1.12 crore from Raj Kumar Thakur, 52, an accountant of a footwear manufacturing firm in Faridabad in May this year after trapping him in stock market investment fraud.

An FIR in the case was registered at the Cybercrime (central) police station in Faridabad. Yashpal Yadav, public relations officer of Faridabad police, said that Elis earlier worked in a private firm for a salary of ₹12,000 per month.

“He had come in contact with a suspect, Pintu Pepsi of Surat who is on a long-term visa in Dubai. On Pintu’s direction, he flew to Dubai in January 2024 and worked as a caller for the Chinese gang,” he said.

Yadav said Elis returned and later started working as a supplier of mule accounts of the gang.

“He used to fly to Dubai every two months with kits of accounts. He had supplied more than 45 mule accounts to the gang and received ₹30,000 commission for a current account and ₹10,000 for a savings account. He used to receive an additional 5% commission of the amount credited into them,” he said, adding Hirani is suspected to have amassed ₹40 lakh to ₹50 lakh while working for the gang in the last one year.

Investigators said that Elis and his elder brother Rajesh Najmuddin Hirani had supplied a current account to the gang opened by Kalpesh in which ₹90 lakh duped from Thakur was credited and ₹10 lakh was credited into Ajeet Bhalala’s savings account.

They said both the account holders, Elis’s elder brother and another mule account supplier named Vivek Nitin Bhai Kotek have already been arrested in the case. Police recovered at least ₹28 lakh till now out of ₹1.12 crore duped from Thakur.

Police said Delhi police had arrested Elis in a cyber fraud case in November 2024 but he had come out of Tihar jail within 10 days after getting bail following which he got involved in these activities again. His elder brother was also earlier arrested by Rajasthan police for a cyber crime case in Kota.