Chargesheet in ₹16,000 cr cyber fraud likely next week

A chargesheet is expected to be filed by the SIT investigating the ₹16,000 crore cyber fraud through a payment gateway in Thane, containing details of 10-12 companies. The SIT has already arrested a chartered accountant and an import-export businessman.

Thane: The special investigation team (SIT) probing the ₹16,000 crore cyber fraud through a payment gateway based in Thane’s Wagle Estate is likely to file the chargesheet in the coming week. The chargesheet will contain details of 10-12 companies through which payments were routed overseas, said police sources.

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Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had announced the SIT probe in the last week of December 2023, saying the payment gateway appeared more like a digital hawala platform involving more than 260 bank accounts and 97 fake notarised agreements.

Headed by the Thane additional commissioner of police (crime) Punjabrao Ugale, the SIT has already arrested a chartered accountant and an import-export businessman allegedly involved in creating fake certificates. The SIT also has leads of 10-12 companies into which money was channelised through multiple, chain-based transactions; the companies then routed the money, running into crores, overseas, said officials.

“We questioned the owners of these companies and they provided us details about their registration. But they failed to account for the transactions, or the actual product for which transactions were undertaken. We will be interrogating them further,” said a member of the SIT.

“We are still scrutinising all the accounts and working on several aspects of the case. We will file chargesheet by next week,” said Ugale.

On July 10, 2023 HT had first reported about alleged cyber fraud through the Thane-based payment gateway company. Unknown hackers had allegedly breached the payment gateway using merchant credentials and siphoned off ₹25 crore to different bank accounts. The probe led the Thane Police to Riyal Enterprises and four other companies which used fake identity documents to carry out transactions worth ₹16,000 crore across more than 260 bank accounts.