In a major breakthrough, India’s state Gujarat’s CID Crime has unearthed a sprawling cross-border cybercrime network that laundered crores of rupees to Pakistan-based cryptocurrency wallets through a maze of “mule” bank accounts and digital assets.
The most recent arrest is that of Chetan Gangani, a resident of Surat, who is accused of helping transfer ₹10 crore through his BitGet crypto account to a wallet linked to Pakistan. His arrest has revealed how fraudsters in India are now using cryptocurrency to hide money trails and send funds out of the country.
Surat man’s arrest unravels money trail to Pakistan
According to police, Gangani’s arrest is part of a larger investigation into a cybercrime syndicate that operated across Gujarat, including Morbi, Surendranagar, Surat, and Amreli districts. Investigators said Gangani had direct links with six individuals arrested on November 3, who allegedly helped route ₹200 crore to Dubai-based cybercriminals using nearly 100 mule bank accounts.
A mule account, officials explained, is a bank account used—often by unsuspecting individuals—to receive, transfer, or launder illegal funds. Gangani, however, is believed to have knowingly assisted the gang by converting ₹10 crore into cryptocurrency (USDT) and transferring it to a Pakistan-based crypto wallet through his BitGet account over four months.
“The Pakistan-based wallet had about ₹29 crore in total, of which ₹10 crore originated from Gujarat. Gangani received a 0.10% commission on every USDT transaction,” police sources confirmed.
386 cases linked to the network
The six individuals previously arrested are accused of providing 100 mule accounts that were used in 386 separate cybercrime cases across India. These include digital arrest scams, task frauds, investment frauds, online loan scams, and part-time job scams.
Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi, who also handles the Home portfolio, took to X on Saturday to announce the crackdown:
“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.”
He added that the cybercrime team “meticulously tracked the money trail through seven layers, from initial Indian accounts to cryptocurrency (USDT) transactions.”
According to Sanghavi, investigators found that ₹10 crore had been transferred to a Pakistani Binance USDT account, which had cumulatively received over ₹25 crore from Indian sources. “This gang was one of the major contributors,” he said.
Rising crypto scams across Gujarat: A pattern emerges
The CID’s recent findings have brought to light how cryptocurrency is increasingly being used not just for money laundering but also in a growing number of scams targeting people across Gujarat.
On October 28, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Ahmedabad Police filed a case against four men from Nagpur for cheating a local businessman of ₹2.05 crore in the name of a fake cryptocurrency investment.
The victim, Bunty Kanaiyalal Sangtani, who owns a readymade garment shop in Nana Chiloda, was promised high monthly returns by a company called Doxy, which claimed to trade in USDT. Believing the offer to be genuine, he invested a large amount, only to later realize it was a scam. The accused — Jay Balram Kakwani, Namdev Rajkumar Mirani, Nikhil Tejram Tawale, and Sanjay Hariram Hemrajani — are said to have planned the entire fraud carefully and gained Sangtani’s trust before duping him.
Just a couple of weeks earlier, on October 10, a 51-year-old man from Gandhidham, originally from Pune, lost ₹56.47 lakh in another crypto scam that operated through the Telegram app.
The victim, Kishor Nargundkar, was added to a group named Conforge Finance by a woman called Deepa, who convinced him that he could earn huge profits through trading. Over the next few months, he made 38 separate transactions between June 25 and September 8, sending a total of ₹56.47 lakh to the fraudsters.
The scammers later imposed bogus charges like a ₹10.65 lakh penalty for violating trading rules and a ₹4 lakh withdrawal tax—and even displayed fake profits of ₹61 lakh in his account. When Nargundkar refused to pay an additional ₹13 lakh “release fee,” he realized the scam and approached Kutch East Cyber Crime Police.
Police have named Deepa, Anubhav Goyal, and Ashutosh Kumar, along with Conforge Finance and Coinbase, in the case, under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (Indian Penal Code).
On October 8, yet another shocking case came to light from Rajkot. Hardik Umraniya, a 35-year-old medical representative, lost ₹31.5 lakh after falling for a fake USDT investment scam.
It all started when Hardik accepted a friend request from a stranger on Facebook. The two started chatting, and after a few friendly exchanges, the person brought up an investment plan promising big and quick returns through cryptocurrency.
To test if it was real, Hardik sent ₹10,000. A few days later, he got back ₹12,500, which made him believe the offer was genuine. Convinced, he started putting in more money. Within just 11 days — between July 20 and July 31, 2025, he ended up transferring ₹31.5 lakh in 13 transactions to the bank accounts the fraudsters had shared.
When he later attempted to withdraw his funds, the fraudsters demanded a “security verification fee” of ₹15,000. That was when he realized he had been duped and filed a complaint with the Rajkot Cybercrime Police.
Authorities warn of growing cross-border crypto crimes
The series of cases underline a troubling trend of cross-border cryptocurrency crimes involving India-based victims and global cyber syndicates operating via encrypted apps and digital currencies like USDT (Tether).
Officials said the Gujarat CID’s recent crackdown is only “the tip of the iceberg” as investigations continue into hundreds of linked bank accounts and crypto wallets connected to scams targeting Indians nationwide.
Authorities have urged citizens to stay vigilant, avoid unsolicited investment offers on social media or Telegram, and immediately report suspicious activity to the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (cybercrime.gov.in).
In short, from big money-laundering cases linked to Pakistan to smaller scams that have cheated ordinary people in Gujarat, crypto has become the new tool for fraudsters. Digital currency is now being used to move and hide money in ways that make it harder for the police to track. Investigators are working round the clock to follow the money trail and stay ahead of these fast-evolving crimes.
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