Daijiworld Media Network - Surat
Surat, Nov 9: A Surat resident has been arrested for allegedly helping a cybercrime syndicate transfer Rs 10 crore to a Pakistan-based cryptocurrency wallet, officials said on Saturday.
The accused, identified as Chetan Gangani, was taken into custody by the CID-Crime division of the Gujarat Police as part of an ongoing probe into ‘mule’ bank accounts used by scamsters to launder proceeds of cyber fraud, the Cyber Centre of Excellence said in a release.
Gangani reportedly had links with six individuals arrested on November 3 from Morbi, Surendranagar, Surat, and Amreli districts for allegedly routing nearly Rs 200 crore to Dubai-based cybercriminals using around 100 mule accounts.
According to officials, a mule account is one used by criminals to receive or transfer illegal funds, sometimes without the knowledge of the account holder.
Investigators revealed that Gangani helped the arrested cyber gang convert Rs 10 crore into USDT (Tether) cryptocurrency and transfer it to a Pakistan-based wallet through his BitGet crypto account over a span of four months. He reportedly received a 0.10 per cent commission on each transaction, though police did not disclose the total amount earned.
The six accused arrested earlier had allegedly provided mule accounts to cybercriminals operating across Gujarat. These accounts were found linked to 386 cases of digital arrests, task frauds, investment scams, loan frauds, and fake part-time job schemes registered across the country.
Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi confirmed the arrest, calling it a major breakthrough in tackling cross-border cybercrime.
“In a major breakthrough, the Gujarat Cyber Crime Center of Excellence has dismantled a large-scale ‘Mule Account’ network operating across multiple districts — Morbi, Surendranagar, Surat, and Savarkundla — with direct financial links traced to Pakistan,” Sanghavi said on X.
He added that investigators “meticulously tracked the money trail” through seven layers, from Indian bank accounts to cryptocurrency transactions.
“The probe revealed the transfer of Rs 10 crore to a Pakistani Binance USDT account, which has cumulatively received over Rs 25 crore from Indian accounts, with this gang being one of the major sources,” Sanghavi stated.