Surat Man Held for Aiding ₹10 Cr Transfer to Pakistan Crypto Wallet
Ahmedabad: Police arrested a resident of Surat in Gujarat for allegedly helping a gang of cyber fraudsters transfer Rs 10 crore to a Pakistan-based cryptocurrency wallet, officials said. Chetan Gangani was detained as part of an ongoing investigation into ‘mule’ bank accounts used by fraudsters to launder proceeds of cyber crime, Gujarat police CID-Crime Cyber Center of Excellence said on Saturday.
The statement said the accused was linked to six persons arrested from Morbi, Surendranagar, Surat and Amreli districts on November 3, who allegedly diverted Rs 200 million to Dubai-based cyber criminals using around 100 mule accounts.
According to authorities, a mule account is a bank account used by criminals to receive, transfer or launder illegal funds, with or without the knowledge of the account holder.
The statement said that Gangani helped the previously arrested cyber gang members convert Rs 10 crore into cryptocurrency USDT or Tether and then send it to a Pakistan-based wallet through “BitGet crypto wallet” over a period of four months.
It was stated that he received a commission of 0.10 percent per USDT. The police did not disclose the total monetary value of the commission.
According to the police, the six people detained earlier had given 100 mules accounts to cyber criminals across Gujarat. These accounts were used in 386 cases recorded nationwide, including digital arrests, job scams, investment scams, loan scams, and part-time job scams.
Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi, who holds the home portfolio, said on Saturday that CID Crime had busted a “massive cross-border cybercrime network”.
“In a major breakthrough, the Gujarat Cyber Crime Center of Excellence has busted a large-scale ‘Mule Account’ network operating in multiple locations including Morbi, Surendranagar, Surat and Savarkundla, with direct financial links to Pakistan,” he said in a statement on X.
He said the cybercrime team “meticulously followed the money trail” through seven layers, from initial Indian accounts to cryptocurrency (USDT) transactions.
“The investigation revealed that Rs 10 billion was transferred to a Pakistani Binance USDT account, which cumulatively received more than Rs 25 crore from Indian accounts, and this gang was one of the main sources,” Sanghavi added.
