Palghar, Maharashtra: The Palghar Police have busted an illegal call centre operating from a residential building in Mahim, Palghar West, and arrested five persons for allegedly cheating foreign nationals, primarily citizens of the United States, through an international cyber fraud racket.
Tip-off Leads to Midnight Raid on Flat
The Local Crime Branch (LCB) received confidential information that a bogus call centre was being run from a flat in Fia Ekant Building within the limits of Palghar police station. Acting on the tip-off, Superintendent of Police Yatish Deshmukh directed a special team to conduct a raid after completing necessary legal formalities.
Under the leadership of Police Inspector Pradip Patil, the LCB team raided Room No. 303 of the building at around 12.10 am on February 24, 2026. Five persons were found operating the fraudulent setup from the flat. During the search, police seized equipment worth approximately ₹5.72 lakh, including four laptops, 12 mobile phones, four headsets, a TP-Link router and an Airtel dongle.
Accused Hail from Four Different States
The arrested accused have been identified as Bharat Loku Lalwani (35) of Mira Road East, Rohit Rajendra Nimbalkar (29) of Naigaon in Pune district, Rohit Milind Zonhe (23) of Mira Road, Amardeep Angrez Gill (24) of Bhayandar East who is originally from Mohali in Punjab, and Sagar Baldev Pathadiya (29) of Kamrej in Surat, Gujarat.
Police investigations revealed that the accused had allegedly procured mobile numbers, names and other personal data of US citizens through illegal means. Posing as representatives of Microsoft and Apple, they would contact victims and falsely claim that their electronic devices had been infected with viruses. The callers allegedly convinced victims that their systems had been hacked and offered to resolve the issue.
Victims Forced to Buy Gift Cards
Under this pretext, the accused allegedly pressured victims into purchasing gift cards such as Apple, Amazon and Nike gift cards ranging from 500 to 4,000 US dollars. The fraudulently obtained gift card amounts were then converted into cryptocurrency (USDT) and routed through hawala channels to obtain cash, indicating an organised international cyber fraud network.
A case has been registered at Palghar Police Station under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, including Sections 318(2), 319(2), 336(3), 338, 340(2) and 61(2), along with Sections 66(C) and 66(D) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
The five accused were produced before the court, which remanded them to police custody until February 28, 2026. Further investigation is being carried out by the Local Crime Branch, Palghar.
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