Mumbai: Malad businessman duped of ₹33 lakh in PM Mudra Yojana loan scam

A shocking case of cyber fraud has come to light in Malad, where three cyber fraudsters allegedly cheated a local businessman of around ₹33 lakh by promising him a loan under the Prime Minister’s Mudra Yojana.

The accused, identified as Nitin Kumar, Ashwin Kumar, and Dayashankar Mishra, have been booked by the Cyber Cell of the North Regional Division under charges of cheating and relevant sections of the IT Act.

According to police, the complainant, who runs an imitation jewellery packaging business in Malad, required a loan of ₹10 lakh to expand his business. In June 2025, he downloaded a mobile application and applied for the loan. A few days later, he received a call from a person introducing himself as Nitin Kumar, claiming to be calling from the Prime Minister’s Mudra Yojana office with a branch at BKC. Nitin assured him that a ₹10 lakh loan had been approved and asked for his personal documents along with the loan application. He even sent an approval letter over WhatsApp.

Soon, Nitin started demanding money for processing fees and other charges. Around this time, another man named Ashwin Kumar called the complainant, stating that Nitin had shared his number. Claiming to be an employee of State Bank, Ashwin sent his identity card over WhatsApp to gain trust. On various pretexts, Ashwin demanded urgent payments, and the complainant ended up transferring ₹9,53,177 into multiple bank accounts. To arrange the amount, he even borrowed money from friends, who themselves transferred ₹46,251 to the accused’s accounts.

Despite assurances, no loan amount was credited to the complainant’s account. Eventually, calls to both Nitin and Ashwin went unanswered. Later, the complainant contacted another person whose account he had transferred money to. This man, identifying himself as Dayashankar Mishra from a finance company, was told about the fraud. However, Dayashankar also lured the complainant with the promise of a loan and extracted another ₹18,73,700 towards “processing” and other charges, without delivering any loan.

In total, the three accused allegedly cheated the businessman of ₹33 lakh. Realising the fraud, the victim approached the police and the North Regional Cyber Cell, following which an FIR was registered. Police are now tracing the bank accounts where the cheated amount was deposited and further investigation is underway.