Ahmedabad, April 29 Two individuals from Ghaziabad district in Uttar Pradesh have been arrested by the Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Branch in connection with an interstate cyber fraud case involving impersonation of senior officials of the Ministry of Finance, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and other agencies, police said on Wednesday.
The complainant was allegedly cheated of around Rs 47.36 lakh in the case, officials added.
Officials said the complainant was contacted between April 28, 2022, and March 10, 2026, by multiple individuals using different mobile numbers, all of whom impersonated officials of NPCI and the Ministry of Finance, among others.
The accused allegedly used identities such as NPCI Senior Officer Jitendra Goswami, NPCI officer Pravinaben (Mumbai), NPCI Senior Officer and Advocate Ladura Munda, IT Officer Ashok Singhal (Delhi), NPCI Fund Transfer Officer Sonal Agrawal, Ministry official Miteshkumar, and NPCI Senior Manager (Finance and Fund Transfer) Jagdish Chandra Vyas.
They allegedly told the complainant that Rs 10 lakh from an LIC policy had been deposited in a government account and could be recovered.
On this pretext, the accused collected money under various heads including taxes, stamp duty and fees.
They also facilitated the opening of bank accounts in ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank in the complainant’s name and arranged a SIM card, which was couriered to Delhi, enabling continued control over communication and transactions.
The accused further claimed that Rs 1,48,70,390 was deposited with NPCI and would be transferred to bank accounts, but continued to demand additional payments under the guise of tax and processing charges.
To gain trust, they sent fake NPCI identity cards and a forged Aadhaar card in the name of Jagdish Chandra Vyas (masked Aadhaar number 6529 2159 XXXX).
The total amount cheated in the case was Rs 47,35,874.
Following technical analysis and human Intelligence inputs, the Cyber Crime team traced the accused to Modinagar in Ghaziabad.
A team led by Police Inspector M.H. Bhetariya conducted a raid and arrested two accused identified as Sumit Kumar, aged 32, and Ashu Agrawal, aged 27.
Kumar allegedly impersonated Ministry of Finance official 'Miteshkumar' and NPCI Senior Manager 'Jagdish Chandra Vyas'.
Police said he used fake email IDs purportedly belonging to the Ministry, Supreme Court, and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and circulated forged documents and identity cards via WhatsApp to deceive the victim.
He had earlier worked as a telecaller in Noida and Ghaziabad call centres between 2019 and 2023–24 and was later engaged in driving work while continuing cyber fraud activities.
Ashu Agrawal was allegedly responsible for supplying 15 to 20 SIM cards used in the fraud, charging up to ten times the market price.
He also issued SIM cards using customers’ Aadhaar details and biometric verification without their knowledge through his business Agrawal Trading, which dealt in Vodafone-Idea (VI) SIM distribution.
Police said the accused used multiple SIM cards, fake identities and forged documents to sustain the fraud and repeatedly change communication channels to avoid detection.
The accused allegedly convinced the complainant to believe that earlier fraud cases had been resolved and that additional funds were recoverable.
They also misused previously obtained data to repeatedly target the victim.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, Dr Lavina Sinha said, “The fraudsters contacted them multiple times and told them in such a way that they could receive more money, claiming that some amount was still invested… the victim was lured into believing that Rs 1,48,00,000 was pending, and through multiple transactions, they gradually extracted Rs 48 lakh from the victim.”
She further stated that Sumit Kumar had been involved in similar offences since 2020 and had reused old data from earlier frauds to target victims again.
The Cyber Crime Branch has advised citizens not to trust unsolicited calls promising higher returns on insurance or investments, not to share personal banking or SIM-related information, and to immediately report such incidents on the national cybercrime helpline 1930.
It also warned against repeated biometric verification during SIM issuance, stating that such practices are commonly exploited for fraudulent SIM activation.
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