Police in Gujarat’s Navsari district have arrested 35 individuals across three states in connection with 10 separate cases of cyber fraud involving more than ₹3 crore, officials said on Sunday.
The arrests were made under “Operation Cyber Storm”, a coordinated investigation led by the Navsari Police, said Superintendent of Police Sushil Agrawal. The accused were apprehended from various locations in Gujarat, as well as Jaipur in Rajasthan and Mumbai in Maharashtra.
“To investigate such crimes quickly and coherently, we selected 10 significant cyber fraud cases and launched targeted operations in seven districts spread across three states,” Agrawal told reporters. The selected cases involved various forms of online deception, including fraudulent investment schemes, fake social media identities, and phishing links sent via mobile phones.
The accused were picked up from Surat, Bharuch, Bhavnagar, Rajkot, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Mumbai. Agrawal said the police had compiled a detailed database on each suspect before forming special teams made up of officers from the local crime branch, special operations group, and cybercrime units to conduct the arrests.
According to police, many of the cases revolved around investment scams. Victims were sent phishing links promising high returns on shares and online trading. Once the links were accessed, large sums of money were siphoned off from their bank accounts.
In other cases, the fraudsters allegedly created fake Facebook profiles of the victims and used them to solicit money from friends and relatives.
Some of the suspects also reportedly lured people by gaining their trust and then convincing them to transfer large sums of money across various platforms, police added.
The investigation remains ongoing as authorities work to trace the full extent of the financial fraud and identify additional collaborators.
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