Thane police nab two men in connection with Rs 16,180 cr payment gateway fraud

The police in Maharashtra’s Thane city have arrested two persons for their alleged role in a financial crime that involved breaching the system of a payment gateway service provider and siphoning off more than Rs 16,180 crore, an official said on Friday.

The police on Thursday arrested Anup Dubey (26) of Bhayander, and Mumbai resident Sanjay Namdeo Gaikwad (42), a partner in a firm, the official said.

According to the police, the fraud had been taking place for a long time, but it came to light after a complaint was lodged with the Srinagar police station about the hacking of the payment gateway system of the company in April 2023 and Rs 25 crore being siphoned off.

During the probe, the cyber cell team came across suspicious transactions of more than Rs 16,180 crore.

The Naupada police in the city on October 6 registered a case against five persons under sections 420 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust), 467, 468 (forgery), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention) and provisions of the Information Technology Act.

As per the FIR, one of the accused, named Jitendra Pandey, earlier worked for 8 to 10 years with banks as a relationship and sales manager.

The police suspect there may be many players in this mega racket, which has been going on for long, and may have pan-India ramifications affecting several companies and individuals, the official said.

The police had earlier said that the accused allegedly set up several partnership firms on bogus documents to launder the amount.

As many as five partnership firms were set up by the accused, and transactions to the tune of Rs 16,180 crore were revealed after the inspection of 260 bank statements, police had said.