Gujarat cyber fraud: Two UP men arrested for ₹47.36 lakh scam posing as NPCI, Finance Ministry officials

The Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Branch has arrested two men from Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, for allegedly defrauding a victim of ₹47,35,874 over nearly four years by impersonating senior officials of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the Ministry of Finance, the Supreme Court, and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The accused were traced to Modinagar in Ghaziabad following technical analysis and human intelligence inputs, police said on Wednesday, 29 April 2025.

How the Fraud Unfolded

According to police, the complainant was first contacted on 28 April 2022 and continued to be targeted until 10 March 2026 — a span of nearly four years. The accused used multiple mobile numbers and assumed fabricated identities including NPCI Senior Officer Jitendra Goswami, NPCI Fund Transfer Officer Sonal Agrawal, and NPCI Senior Manager (Finance and Fund Transfer) Jagdish Chandra Vyas, among others.

The initial pretext was that ₹10 lakh from an LIC policy had been deposited in a government account and could be recovered. The accused then collected money under various heads including taxes, stamp duty, and processing fees. They later escalated the deception by claiming that ₹1,48,70,390 was held with NPCI and would be transferred once additional charges were paid — a classic advance-fee fraud pattern.

To lend credibility to their claims, the accused sent fake NPCI identity cards and a forged Aadhaar card in the name of Jagdish Chandra Vyas (masked number 6529 2159 XXXX) via WhatsApp. They also facilitated the opening of bank accounts in ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank in the complainant's name and arranged a SIM card that was couriered to Delhi, giving the accused continued control over the victim's communication and transactions.

Who Was Arrested

A team led by Police Inspector M.H. Bhetariya conducted a raid in Modinagar and arrested two accused: Sumit Kumar, 32, and Ashu Agrawal, 27.

Sumit Kumar allegedly impersonated Finance Ministry official 'Miteshkumar' and NPCI Senior Manager 'Jagdish Chandra Vyas'. He reportedly used fake email IDs purportedly belonging to the Ministry of Finance, the Supreme Court, and the CBI, and circulated forged documents via WhatsApp. Kumar had previously worked as a telecaller at call centres in Noida and Ghaziabad between 2019 and 2023–24 before transitioning to driving work — all while allegedly continuing cyber fraud activities. Police said he has been involved in similar offences since 2020 and reused old data from earlier frauds to re-target victims.

Ashu Agrawal was allegedly responsible for supplying 15 to 20 SIM cards used in the fraud, charging up to ten times the market price. He reportedly issued SIM cards using customers' Aadhaar details and biometric verification without their knowledge through his business Agrawal Trading, a Vodafone-Idea (VI) SIM distributor.