Pimpri-Chinchwad Police Uncover Rs 1 Crore Stock Scam, Arrest Eight Linked to International Syndicate; UAE Bank Employee Implicated
Reported by Varad Bhatkhande
Pimpri-Chinchwad, 14th November 2024: Eight individuals have been arrested by the Pimpri-Chinchwad Police Commissionerate’s (PCPC) Cyber Police Station for allegedly defrauding a senior citizen of nearly ₹1 crore by promising exceptionally high returns in the stock market. The accused reportedly have ties to an international syndicate, with one member employed at a bank in the United Arab Emirates.
The case was registered at the Cyber Police Station under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Sections 318 (cheating), 316 (criminal breach of trust), 335 (making a false document), 336 (forgery), 339 (possession of forged document, knowing it to be forged and intending to use it as genuine), Section 3(5), and relevant provisions of the Information Technology (Amendments) Act of 2008.
The accused include Mahadev alias Madhukar Gangadhar Katake (age 44, resident of Navi Mumbai), Masud Aalam Siddiqui (age 48, resident of Jogeshwari, Mumbai), Mohammad Afzal Salmani (age 49, resident of Goregaon, Mumbai), Tausif Jainuddin Syed (age 40, resident of Malad, Mumbai), Sagar Bramhadev Bhosale (age 38, resident of Indapur, Pune), Imran Mohammad Hasan Syed (age 33, resident of Thane), Pranav Pravin Dalvi (age 30, resident of Borivali, Mumbai), and Danish Dilawar Sathi (age 24, resident of Thane).
According to police reports, a senior citizen residing in Kalewadi was encouraged to invest in stocks and was provided a link to join a WhatsApp group. He was then instructed to download an app called “Causeway,” where he was assigned two daily tasks that, upon completion, promised returns of 300%. Trusting the accused, he invested ₹99,00,000 but did not receive the promised returns or his initial investment. Realising he had been defrauded, the victim promptly reported the case to the police.
The investigation revealed the involvement of multiple bank accounts. During a technical analysis of these accounts, one was traced to a person in Mumbai. When questioned, the account holder disclosed that he had provided the account, along with the bank kit, to his uncle, accused Mahadev Katake. Upon his arrest, Katake identified seven additional suspects, all of whom were apprehended by the Cyber Police.
In the preliminary investigation, it was discovered that one accused, Danish Sathi, worked at a bank in Abu Dhabi, UAE, while another accused, Pranav Dalvi, was found to have connections with individuals in Hong Kong through Telegram, where he was involved in selling bank accounts. The police seized 13 mobile phones and several bank account kits, valued at a combined ₹1,20,000. All suspects have been remanded to police custody until November 16.
The accused reportedly controlled 36 bank accounts, with 27 complaints registered against them. Transactions totalling ₹2.68 crore were linked to these accounts. Police Inspector Ravikiran Nale, head of the Cyber Police Station, is overseeing the ongoing investigation.
This operation was conducted under the guidance of Pimpri-Chinchwad Commissioner of Police Vinoy Kumar Choubey, Joint Commissioner of Police Dr. Shashikant Mahavarkar, Additional Commissioner of Police Vasant Pardeshi, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sandeep Doiphode, and Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime 1) Dr. Vishal Hire.
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The team was led by Police Inspector Ravikiran Nale and included Assistant Police Inspector Praveen Swami, Police Sub-Inspectors Sagar Poman, Vaibhav Patil, and Prakash Katkade, and Police Constables Hemant Kharat, Deepak Bhosale, Deepak Mane, Atul Lokhande, Pritam Bhalerao, Shrikant Kabule, Abhijeet Ukirde, Saurabh Ghate, Sandeep Tekale, Nilesh Deshmukh, Suranjan Chavan, Dnyaneshwar Gawali, Sachin Ghadage, Parshuram Chavan, Pankaj Dhote, Mahesh Motkar, Monika Chittewar, Smita Patil, Shubhangi Dhobale, Dipali Tope, Dharti Wadekar, and Dipali Chavan, all from the Cyber Police Station.
