Mumbai Police have arrested four men for allegedly supplying mule bank accounts, fake SIM cards and one-time passwords (OTPs) to Chinese cyber fraudsters in exchange for a 3% commission. The accused allegedly retained ₹53 lakh from the ₹1.89 crore siphoned from a 68-year-old Andheri resident in an investment fraud in August.
The West Cyber Police traced the accused after ₹53 lakh was transferred from a mule current account opened in the name of Vitthal Fruits to their personal bank accounts.
Those arrested have been identified as Ramesh Lavangare, 49, an alleged mastermind and college dropout from Kamothe; Vitthal Waghmode, 36, a school dropout from Indapur, Pune; Nanasaheb Parkhe, 33, a graduate from Panvel; and Amol Kumbhar, 39, also a graduate from Panvel.
According to police, the victim was contacted on WhatsApp and persuaded to invest in NAM AMC HNW share-market trading with promises of high returns. He subsequently deposited ₹1.89 crore into multiple bank accounts in August. The fraud came to light when he attempted to withdraw the money. The fraudsters allegedly demanded additional payments to release the investment and purported profits shown in a fake share-trading account created in his name.
DCP (Cyber) Bajrang Bansode said Waghmode, acting on Lavangare’s instructions and with Parkhe’s assistance, provided documents to open a current account at a nationalised bank. The account was subsequently handed over to cybercriminals, police said.
Senior Inspector Sandeep Patil said the four accused had joined a Telegram group called “786-Wisdom Launch Club” and opened bank accounts as instructed. Police said Parkhe, who worked as a vegetable supplier at APMC market, operated the first-layer beneficiary account, while Kumbhar, a former bank accountant who also ran a milk shop, transferred the money to his own account before distributing it.
The case was cracked after the police team tracked the movement of the ₹53 lakh transferred to Lavangare and the other accused. Police said the four had split the amount among themselves before breaking their SIM cards and leaving the Telegram group where they had been offering banking details to fraudsters.
According to Sub-Inspector Shivaji Sawale, Lavangare decided to retain the money instead of passing it on to the Chinese fraudsters, which eventually helped investigators trace the accused and led to their arrests.
The investigation was conducted by a team comprising Senior Inspector Sandeep Patil, Assistant Inspector Shankar Patil, Sub-Inspector Shivaji Sawale and cybercrime officers.
