Crypto Scam Spectacle: Six Arrested in Ahmedabad

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Key Highlights

  • In Ahmedabad, six accused were collarled by the police in a ₹1.5 crore crypto swindle that, alas for virtue, has casts its net over 41 cases, leaving a single victim ruing ₹57.9 lakh with nothing but glittering promises of easy investment.
  • In Bhopal, a property dealer lost ₹18.5 lakh after a bogus trading app flashed fictitious profits near ₹50 lakh and then demanded a 25% withdrawal fee, because fraudsters always have a good sense of expense accounts.
  • Perpetrators employed USDT transactions, a battalion of bank accounts, and counterfeit platforms to shuttle funds and conduct scams across several states, as if mischief were a national sport.

The first week of April already offers two brisk reminders that India’s crypto fraud epidemic is not inclined to take a holiday.

In Ahmedabad, the Cyber Crime Branch apprehended six individuals linked to a sham cryptocurrency investment operation that deprived a local resident of ₹57.9 lakh and touches no fewer than 41 cyber fraud cases across multiple states, with total transactions skittering around ₹1.5 crore.

Separately, in Bhopal, a property dealer was duped of ₹18.5 lakh by fraudsters who wielded a fake share trading app that displayed fabricated profits close to ₹50 lakh before demanding a 25% “processing fee” when withdrawal was attempted.

Both tales follow the same well-worn script that investigators have seen a hundred times over. And yet, the script keeps selling tickets.

Ahmedabad: Six arrested, one mastermind still absconding in Dubai

The Ahmedabad case began when a local resident filed a complaint with the Cyber Crime Branch after being tricked out of ₹57.9 lakh by a counterfeit crypto investment scheme, according to the Times of India.

Police say the victim was first approached through Facebook, where a phony profile cultivated affection and trust before steering the conversation toward investments.

Once trust was established, the victim was urged to download an application called “CBOE US” and begin investing in USDT, that ubiquitous dollar-pegged coin beloved by miscreants. Over roughly 24 transactions, money flowed into a string of bank accounts provided by the scammers.

The app professed real profits. But when the victim tried to withdraw, the operators produced the telltale obstacle: a further fee to unlock withdrawal-a red flag now standard in these dramas.

That is when the victim sought the authorities.

What investigators found behind that single complaint proved larger than a single misfortune. The Cyber Crime Branch traced funds into five bank accounts, four of which were implicated in dozens of fraud complaints across different states. The accounts had been opened under the name “Crystal Interior Designers Private Limited” across ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Yes Bank, and Bandhan Bank. The total transactions through these accounts are estimated at around ₹1.5 crore.

Six people were arrested: Tahir Belim, Adnan Sheikh, Ajaz Sheikh, Omkar Goswami, Maqsud Mirza, and Sunny Ashok Kumar Maggo from Delhi. The alleged mastermind, Mayur Savaliya, is said to be operating from Dubai and remains at large.

The investigation uncovered a layered operation: middlemen opening accounts, managing cash flows, and even ferrying account holders to New Delhi for banking operations.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Hardik Makadia explained that the scam follows a pattern now familiar in India’s crypto fraud landscape: targets are identified on social media, drawn into an emotional rapport, then persuaded to invest via fake platforms. The funds never enter genuine cryptocurrency wallets; they are deposited into bank accounts and cycled out before law enforcement can intervene.

A case has been registered under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act.

Bhopal: ₹18.5 lakh gone through a fake trading app

Around the same hour, Lalit Namdev, a property dealer in Bhopal, found himself at the mercy of nearly identical chicanery with a different opening gambit.

Namdev, a Chanakyapuri resident who dabbled in stock market matters, encountered a mobile application on social media in January 2026. The app promised high returns through share and crypto trading. A woman answered the call, shepherded him through promised benefits, and convinced him of substantial returns via their system, which would levy a commission.

Namdev began investing. Over the ensuing weeks, the dashboard showed his fortune swelling toward ₹50 lakh. On the surface, everything appeared to be proceeding exactly as promised.

The ruse collapsed when Namdev attempted withdrawal. He was told he must pay 25% of the total as a processing fee before withdrawal could be processed. By then Namdev had deposited ₹18.55 lakh. Realising the jest, he ceased payments and filed a cyber cell complaint. The case has been transferred to Chunabhatti police station, where a fraud case remains pending against unidentified suspects.

The investigation continues.

Same playbook, different cities

Remove the city names, and the two cases resemble each other with uncanny precision. Social media as the hunter’s ground; fake profiles and phone conversations as the trust-constructs; a glossy platform with rising figures as the lure. And when the moment comes to retrieve one’s money, a sudden “processing fee,” “tax,” or “verification charge” appears out of nowhere.

This is not new. Crypto Times has chronicled this script across Pune, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and beyond. The use of USDT as the vehicle is telling: it sounds legitimate to the uninitiated, and once funds are converted and moved, the trail becomes a hard thing for Indian law enforcement to follow across borders.

In the last month alone, a 70-year-old Ahmedabad advocate lost ₹57.9 lakh to the exact same “CBOE US” app; three senior citizens in Hyderabad lost a combined ₹4.4 crore via WhatsApp and Instagram traps; a Pune techie lost ₹69 lakh to a fake trading app; and Pune itself saw ₹3.8 crore vanish into crypto scams in seven days.

Ahmedabad’s growing fraud problem

For Ahmedabad, this is no isolated misfortune. Gujarat Legislative Assembly data show the city recorded 694 cyber fraud cases between February 2024 and January 2026, involving ₹134.45 crore. Police recovered ₹49.01 crore and arrested 664 across 315 traced cases.

In February 2026, the Ahmedabad Crime Branch arrested Sujit Shankarrao Dev, a 47-year-old software specialist who had been a fugitive for nearly two years after allegedly swindling over 100 investors in a cryptocurrency investment scam worth over ₹100 crore. Dev had run a fake crypto investment office in Mumbai’s Dahisar since 2021, promising returns up to four times the investment through supposed trading and mining schemes. He was tracked through electronic surveillance and coordination between Crime Branch teams in two cities and arrested near the Ahmedabad airport.

Gujarat’s history with large-scale crypto fraud runs deeper. The BitConnect saga, engineered by a Gujarat-born conspirator, remains among India’s largest crypto Ponzi schemes. The Enforcement Directorate seized crypto worth ₹1,646 crore from devices tied to the mastermind in February 2025. In January 2026, the ED arrested two more individuals in connection with the case after tracing extorted Bitcoins through several third-party crypto accounts, with funds eventually converted into Ethereum and USDT.

The bigger picture

Nationally, the numbers are dismal. Over 24 lakh cybercrime complaints were filed on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal in 2025, with fraud losses totaling ₹22,495 crore. The recovery rate is dismally low. Of ₹36,448 crore in cumulative losses since the portal’s inception, only ₹60.52 crore has been returned to victims.

The government’s PRAHAAR counter-terrorism strategy, released February 2026, flags the growing use of crypto wallets by criminal and terrorist networks. A dedicated darknet and cryptocurrency task force has been established under the Multi-Agency Centre. The Union Budget 2025-2026 allotted ₹782 crore for cybersecurity projects. And from April 1, 2026, new powers under the Income Tax Bill allow authorities to access crypto wallets, emails, and social media during authorized searches.

Whether these tools translate into meaningful recoveries for thousands of victims remains to be seen.

For now, the message from every recent case is plain and unadorned: any unsolicited investment opportunity arriving via social media, WhatsApp, or a random app, especially one that promises crypto returns, should be treated as a scam until proven otherwise. If a platform asks you to pay a fee to unlock your withdrawal, it is not a real platform. No legitimate exchange or investment scheme will ever reach you through a Facebook profile or a Telegram group.

If you suspect you have been targeted, call the National Cybercrime Helpline at 1930 or file a complaint through the NCRP portal immediately. The “golden hours” after a fraud, when bank accounts can still be frozen, are often the only window for recovering any stolen funds.

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2026-04-03 09:31