Mumbai: Two Held for Cheating Senior Citizen with Fake ‘Digital Arrest’ in Money Laundering Case

The North Region Cyber Cell of Mumbai Police has arrested two associates of a cyber fraud gang for allegedly cheating a senior citizen by threatening him with a ‘digital arrest’ in a fake money laundering case. The arrested accused have been identified as Faraz Zakir Sharif and Aman Gam Mohiuddin Khan, both residents of Andheri and Powai respectively.

Police investigations revealed that the duo had opened bank accounts in the name of bogus companies and shared the account details with cyber fraudsters for use in cheating cases. Both the accused are currently in police custody and are being interrogated further.

In the same case, police have named Sandeep Rao, who impersonated a police officer, Mohammed Sageer Mohammed Haroon Shaikh, Asif Mohammed Nazeer Shaikh, and several unidentified persons who received and laundered the cheated amount through bank accounts, as wanted accused. Efforts are underway to trace and arrest them.

The complainant, a 66-year-old senior citizen residing in North Mumbai, received multiple calls between December 12 and December 19, 2025, from individuals identifying themselves as Sandeep Rao, Vijay Khanna and Akash Kulkarni. The callers falsely claimed to be senior officials and alleged that there was evidence linking the complainant to a money laundering case.

They threatened him with imminent arrest and claimed that an FIR had already been registered against him. The fraudsters further told him that he was being placed under ‘digital arrest’ at his residence and warned him to cooperate with the so-called inquiry or face immediate arrest. Under the pretext of investigation, they obtained details about his family and bank accounts.

After extracting his banking information, the accused persuaded him to transfer money to a specific bank account. The senior citizen was cheated of ₹10.35 lakh. Upon realising the fraud, he approached the North Cyber Cell police, following which a case was registered under charges of impersonation, cheating and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act. The investigation was initiated under the guidance of Inspector Kiran Aher.

During the probe, police found that the cheated amount was first transferred to a bank account in Bengaluru and later distributed across four different bank accounts. These accounts were also found to be linked to other cyber fraud cases. As many as 14 cyber cells from different states had already frozen the said bank accounts.

Further technical analysis revealed that the mobile numbers and IMEI details used to open the bank accounts were active in the Royal Palms–Aarey–Goregaon area. Based on this input, police detained Faraz Sharif and Aman Khan for questioning.

From their possession, police seized three mobile phones, one laptop, bogus company stamp papers, debit cards of various banks and other incriminating material. Investigations revealed that around ₹5 lakh was credited to their bank accounts, which was later handed over to the cyber fraudsters. The duo was in regular contact with the fraud gang and had opened bank accounts in the names of fake companies on their instructions, in return for commission.

Following these findings, police arrested both the accused. Their interrogation has led to the identification of several more suspects, and a special operation has been launched to nab them. On Tuesday afternoon, the accused were produced before the Court, which remanded them to police custody.