Sleepy Rajasthan town’s CCTV footage helps Maharashtra police crack Rs 2.14-crore digital arrest fraud
Pune, Aug 18, 2026
The cyber crime police station of the Pimpri Chinchwad police has arrested Rajendra Ganraj Nagar (32), a construction material supplier from Bundi district of Rajasthan, a three-hour drive from Jaipur.
For four days, an 84-year-old retired Pune resident and his wife lived under these threats as cyber fraudsters, posing as ATS and CID officers, convinced them they were under investigation in a criminal case. By the time the victim realised it was a scam, he had transferred Rs 50.5 lakh to mule bank accounts operated by the fraudsters. Initially posing as officers from Nashik police, the retired school teacher was told that she could be arrested and jailed for PFI links.
The route of the siphoned money involved at least two layers of bank accounts before it was converted into cryptocurrency or moved through a hawala network to international handlers. But it was a CCTV camera in a sleepy town in Rajasthan that finally gave Pimpri-Chinchwad cyber police in Maharashtra a crucial break in the fraud. Nearly nine months after a Rs 2.14-crore digital arrest fraud targeted a septuagenarian couple, investigators followed the money to Bundi district, where a 32-year-old was finally arrested — thanks to footage from a bank that had captured his visits to withdraw cash.
The cyber crime police station of the Pimpri Chinchwad police has arrested Rajendra Ganraj Nagar (32), a construction material supplier from Bundi district of Rajasthan, a three-hour drive from Jaipur. It was CCTV footage from a bank in Nainwa town that finally helped police nab him for his involvement in the Rs 2.14 crore cyber fraud. Nagar not only used his two bank accounts, which were in two different layers of the money siphoning operation, but also withdrew cash to be handed over to another suspect. This suspect, for whom a search has now been launched, further funnelled money via cryptocurrency and hawala route to international cyber masterminds, officials said.
In a case registered at Pimpri Chinchwad cyber crime police station in November last year, a 74-year-old retired manager from a power electronics company and his retired school teacher wife lost Rs 2.14 crore between October 29 and November 13 in a digital arrest scam. The cyber criminals told them that the school teacher’s name had been flagged in a case against Popular Front of India (PFI), which has faced investigation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and other investigation bodies in the country.
Initially posing as officers from Nashik police, the retired school teacher was told that she could be arrested and jailed for PFI links. The fraudsters then manipulated the couple into sharing the details of LIC policies, fixed deposits, recurring and postal deposits, bank savings etc. The couple were asked to transfer all their savings to ‘government accounts’ — which were in fact mule accounts — and were told that the money would be refunded to them as per ‘RBI guidelines’. Under pressure due to fear of arrest, the couple complied with the fraudsters and ended up transferring Rs 2.14 crore in eight large transfers. After realising that they had been cheated, they approached the police.
Considering the sensitive nature of the case, Pimpri Chinchwad police commissioner Vinoy Kumar Choubey closely monitored the probe. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rohidas Pawar said, “We found that six accounts had received money in the fraud directly. Of this, one particular account received Rs 49 lakh and was in the name of Sultan Construction Material Supplier. This was in the first layer. From this account Rs 38 lakh was further sent to another account with the same name but in a different bank. This was in the second layer. Money from this account was withdrawn.”
As the police started looking into the commercial entity which owned the account, they were not able to trace the person who owned it. While no one was found on the registered address, the registered phone was switched off. Notices sent to the address were unanswered. “Following a concrete input, we started checking the CCTV footage from particular dates and time from the bank where the account was held. We zeroed in on a particular person who operated the account and withdrew the cash. We identified the suspect Rajendra Ganraj Nagar. Based on his call data logs, we found out that he was in the Lakheri area in Bundi district, around 50 kilometres from Nainwa where he was operating the account. With the help of the local police in Bundi, the Pimpri Chinchwad police arrested Nagar on August 8. He is currently in judicial custody.
“As we investigated Nagar’s role in the case further, we found that he was in contact with a suspect going by the name Raja, who was funnelling the money up the chain. We have launched a probe to identify and arrest this suspect,” DCP Pawar added.
Despite repeated awareness campaigns by the government and police, digital arrest scams continue to claim victims. Fraudsters typically pose as officials from agencies such as the police, CBI, ED, Narcotics Bureau or RBI to intimidate people into transferring money. The growing threat has even been highlighted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Mann Ki Baat address. Investigators say the money is usually routed through mule bank accounts before being moved to international cybercrime networks, often using cryptocurrency.
[The Indian Express]
