Mumbai Cyber Police Bust Gang Feeding OTPs To Foreign Scammers; Four Held From Tripura In ₹33.5 Lakh 'Digital Arrest' Case

Mumbai: The West Region Cyber Police Station of the Mumbai Police has busted a gang that allegedly supplied WhatsApp and Telegram OTPs to foreign cyber fraudsters involved in various online scams. Four accused, who were in contact with the international cyber criminals, have been arrested from Tripura.

Four Produced in Bandra Court

The arrested accused have been identified as Shantanu Sen, Subrata Barman, Joydev Roy, and Abhijit Shil. They were produced before a local court in Bandra, which remanded them to police custody. The police have seized a large quantity of mobile phones, SIM cards, and materials used for opening bank accounts from their possession. Investigators believe the interrogation of the accused may lead to several more revelations.

According to the police, the case came to light after Meghna Devendra Kamat, a fashion designer residing in Andheri, was duped through a “digital arrest” scam. In December 2024, while she was at home, Kamat received a call from an unidentified person claiming to be an official from TRAI. The caller told her that her mobile phone would be disconnected within two hours as several fraudulent messages had allegedly been sent from her number. He further claimed that the Cyber Cell had ordered her number to be blocked.

Callers Posed as Cops, Threatened Arrest

Shortly thereafter, she received another call from a person identifying himself as Sunilkumar Gautam from the Delhi Cyber Cell. The caller told her that a criminal case had been registered against her in Delhi and that multiple bank accounts had been opened using her documents. He then asked her to speak to his senior officer, Rajeshwar Pradhan.

A few minutes later, Kamat received a video call from a man dressed in a police uniform who introduced himself as Pradhan. He accused her of being involved in money laundering transactions through her bank account and warned that she would be arrested and kept in police custody for 90 days.

Placed Under 'Digital Arrest', Money Transferred

The fraudsters then told her that she was under “digital arrest” and that she was not allowed to speak to or meet anyone until the inquiry was completed. After obtaining details of her bank accounts, they instructed her to transfer all the money from her account to a bank account provided by them, threatening that she would be arrested from her residence if she failed to cooperate.

Fearing arrest, Kamat transferred ₹33.5 lakh to the account provided by the fraudsters. They assured her that the money would be returned once the investigation was completed. However, even after several months, the amount was not returned, after which she realised that she had been cheated and lodged a complaint with the Western Cyber Police.

Based on her complaint, the police registered a case under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act and launched an investigation. Using technical intelligence, a team led by Senior Police Inspector Suvarna Shinde, along with Assistant Police Inspectors Poonam Jadhav, Nitin Gacche, Savita Kadam, Police Sub-Inspector Vijaykumar Ghorpade, Deepak Tayde and other personnel, traced the suspects and detained four individuals from Tripura.

SIM Agent & OTP Supplier Among Accused

During interrogation, the involvement of Shantanu Sen, Subrata Barman, Joydev Roy, and Abhijit Shil was established, following which they were formally arrested. The investigation revealed that Abhijit worked as a SIM card agent and supplied SIM cards used to create WhatsApp and Telegram accounts for the cyber fraud. He had allegedly provided more than 30 SIM cards to the accused. These SIM cards were used to generate OTPs on WhatsApp, which were then shared with Chinese and other foreign cyber criminals.

Shantanu, meanwhile, allegedly helped the fraudsters create new WhatsApp accounts and had also created a WhatsApp group through which OTPs were shared and used to carry out online frauds. During the operation, the police seized several mobile phones, SIM cards, laptops, stamps, a currency counting machine, empty SIM card packets, debit cards, passbooks, PAN cards, an Airtel router, and cash from the accused.

The four accused were produced before a local court in Bandra, which remanded them to police custody. Police officials said further investigation is underway and more disclosures are expected during the interrogation.

To get details on exclusive and budget-friendly property deals in Mumbai & surrounding regions, do visit: https://budgetproperties.in/