Delhi Police have dismantled a cyber fraud syndicate operating across multiple states. The syndicate has links to handlers based in Cambodia. Five men were arrested after coordinated raids in Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan. The gang allegedly cheated dozens of people through fake online investment schemes, laundering over Rs 4.25 crore through mule bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets.
The case came to light after a Delhi resident, R Choudhary, reported being duped of Rs 10.7 lakh.
He had been added to a WhatsApp group that promised high returns on stock market investments.
Initially, he received small profits that appeared genuine. Encou-raged, he invested more after seeing inflated profits displayed on a fake investment dashboard. But when he tried to withdraw his money, the option was suddenly disabled, and the fraudsters stopped responding.
Realising he had been conned, he approached the Cyber Police Station of the South-West District.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (South-West) Amit Goel said the operation exposed a complex web of fraud involving foreign elements. “This was not a local scam but an organised cybercrime network spread across four states and connected to handlers in Cambodia. Our team followed the digital trail of Rs 4.25 crore that moved through several accounts and was later converted into cryptocurrency,” he said. The investigation was led by Inspector Pravesh Kaushik and supervised by ACP Vijay Pal Tomar.
A special team comprising Sub Inspector Chetan Rana, Head Constable Manender and Head Constable Vijaypal was formed to follow the money trail. The team began analysing digital footprints, fake SIM data, and transaction logs.
Despite the accused using multiple fake accounts and cryptocurrency channels to mask their operations, investigators managed to identify the first suspect, Vikram, from Narwana in Haryana. He was arrested after being tracked through a mule account linked to the complaint.
Vikram’s interrogation led to the arrest of Mukul, an air conditioner repair mechanic from Zirakpur, Punjab, who admitted to opening and supplying several mule bank accounts for commission. Based on his disclosures, police caught Akshay, an architect from Una in Himachal Pradesh, who had used his professional contacts to arrange additional accounts for the network. The investigation then led to Hari Kishan Singh, an entrepreneur from Sonipat, Haryana, who was arrested in Amritsar.
Police recovered seven mobile phones, one laptop and nine cheque books from him, all containing details of transactions and mule accounts. The final arrest was made in Sikar, Rajasthan, where the main handler, Mangu Singh, a 27-year-old polytechnic dropout, was apprehended.
According to police, Mangu Singh and his associate Kuldeep came in contact with Cambodian-based fraudsters on Telegram. Together, they created a Telegram group named “ATPay”, used for trading mule bank accounts and laundering money. Singh, along with his associates Vikram, Mukul and Akshay, arranged shell firms and opened bank accounts under various names. Once these accounts were operational, they were handed over to Hari Kishan and Mangu, who coordinated directly with the handlers abroad. The money obtained from victims was routed into these accounts, transferred across several layers to conceal the trail, and finally converted into cryptocurrency, mostly USDT. The gang kept about five per cent of the total proceeds as their commission before transferring the rest to Cambodia-based wallets.
Recovered devices and digital records have revealed detailed logs of Telegram chats, mule account data, and crypto transactions. The registers found during the raids contained lists of bank accounts used to move money across states. Police said at least 15 complaints registered on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal were linked to the same syndicate.
