Mumbai Police Cyber cell finds Dubai links in stock market scam

The North Cyber Cell has made a significant breakthrough uncovering a Dubai link in a stock market fraud case A resident of Dharwad Karnataka has been arrested for providing Indian bank accounts to Dubaibased scammers Officials have discovered that the accused visited Bahrain multiple times and facilitated access to these accounts to Dubaibased handlers He was reportedly paid Rs 120 lakh per account providedThe accused in the stock market fraud case wherein a senior citizen was duped of R188 crore under the pretext of heavy returns have been identified as Irfan Ahmed Gannawala 24 from Dharwad Karnataka and his associate Manjunath Olekar 27 Their arrests mark a significant step forward in the investigation by the North Cyber CellSo far the Cyber Cell has arrested four people in connection with the case Earlier under the guidance of Senior PI Suvarna Shinde investigating officer Kiren Aher arrested two accused from GujaratmdashSaurabh Sanghani 29 a BSc graduate and chemical dealer from Ankleshwar and Gunjan Bhaisania 36 a chemical engineering course dropout involved in the cosmetics business The two had a business relationship with Sanghani supplying chemicals to Bhaisania for his cosmetics ventureInvestigations revealed that all the accused are linked Sanghani first shared the account details with Bhaisania who then passed them on to Olekar who in turn gave them to Gannawala Gannawala provided the account to the primary beneficiary operating from Dubai ldquoIn many cases we have found scammers operating from countries like DubaiGannawalarsquos arrest is a major breakthrough in establishing the chain We are investigating his connections in Dubai and if necessary will communicate with the authorities concerned through official channelsrdquo an officer statedOfficials also disclosed that while the first three accused received Rs 20000Rs 25000 for facilitating the accounts Gannawala was paid Rs 120 lakh by the Dubaibased scammers ldquoWe found that he provided details of multiple accounts to the scammers one of which was used in this caserdquo an officer addedGannawala a resident of Dharwad where his family runs a vegetable business had been involved in the trade until 2023 However he became connected with the scammers and made several trips to Bahrain to provide details of Indian bank accounts to the handlers thereThe cyber cell reports that a total of Rs 6677 lakh has been deposited into the account used in the case from fraudulent activities and later transferred to some other account by the person having control of the account Officials further revealed that 33 complaints related to cyber fraud have been registered against this account across IndialdquoWe have been working on the case for 23 months and after a detailed technical analysis arrests have been made More links are being established to apprehend others involved in the scamrdquo said DCP crime Datta NalawadeThe caseAccording to officials a 71yearold retired professor was duped under the pretext of investing in the stock market between March and April In his statement to the police the complainant said he was added to a WhatsApp group called lsquoICICI Securities VIPrsquo by an unknown person who identified himself as Rajiv Ambani the CIO and his assistant Laxmi They would regularly give stock market investment tips in the groupThe complainant mentioned that upon joining the group many people were sharing screenshots of the significant profits they claimed to have made using the tips provided The complainant alleged that Rajiv then contacted him directly claiming that he had resigned from ICICI Securities and was now running his own investment businessThe senior citizen fell for these claims and began investing through a fraudulent Demat account called lsquoEICICRErsquo which the cybercriminals claimed was an institutional investment platform promising a 30 per cent profit The senior citizen downloaded the app and invested Rs 188 crore The app showed a balance of Rs 205 crore but he was unable to withdraw the funds It was only later that he realised he had been scammed