The Enforcement Directorate is examining the conduct of more than a dozen Mumbai government staff, including police officers who handle cybercrime cases and personnel from the GST and Income Tax departments.
The suspicion is that they helped fraud gangs get blocked bank accounts reopened, Mumbai Mirror reported on Monday.
A senior ED official told the paper the wider inquiry covers 23 officials across the country.
Suspected Lapses
Sources told the newspaper that investigators believe certain officers helped lift restrictions on accounts tied to fraud complaints. Others are suspected of not recording complaints, or of nudging victims to settle for part of their money back instead of lodging FIRs.
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A Goa Complaint Set Things Off
The inquiry traces back to an FIR registered by Goa Police on 9 June 2025. A woman had been held in a "digital arrest" scam and pressed into sending Rs 2.6 crore, while callers posing as TRAI and CBI personnel watched her and her husband over video around the clock.
The ED then took over the money trail. According to the paper, funds passed through roughly 400 accounts held by firms in commodities, travel and currency exchange, which allegedly had dummy directors.
The cash was then taken out and swapped for foreign currency through RBI-licensed dealers. The agency says these dealers were controlled by Fahim Moin Hussain Sayed and Naim Mueen Sayyed.
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Advocate Held As Alleged Go-Between
On 24 October, the ED's Panaji zonal office arrested Mumbai lawyer Rashesh Bharatkumar Upadhyay, also called Rashesh Shah. He is the seventh person held in the case. The agency alleges he got about 100 accounts released for various operators, in one instance for a sum above Rs 60 lakh.
It says he set the amounts, pickup points and onward transfers, with cash passed through informal couriers known as angadias.
The ED searched locations in Mumbai on 5 November. Officers are now going through his dealings and messages with officials.
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How Big Is The Network?
The network handled transactions of nearly Rs 28,000 crore and cash deposits of about Rs 2,900 crore, Mumbai Mirror reported. Its accounts feature in over 300 complaints and more than 160 FIRs across 20 states and Union Territories, with reported victim losses above Rs 400 crore.
The paper stressed that the Rs 28,000 crore figure is the volume of transactions examined, not confirmed losses.
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