The police in Pimpri Chinchwad Police ( in the northern part of Pune) announced on Thursday that they have apprehended a key “bank-account supplier” from Gujarat, accused of aiding online share-trading fraud worth approximately ₹2.1 crore.
The man, identified as Harshwardhan Surendrapratap Bhadoriya — also known as “Fortune” or “Punit” — a 32-year-old originally from Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, is suspected of collaborating with cyber-fraudsters based in China and using multiple bank accounts for illicit transactions.
Authorities said he dealt in cryptocurrencies and communicated through virtual numbers to evade tracing.
Along with Bhadoriya, two other suspects have been taken into custody: share-trader Vishal Dinesh Thakkar (alias “Samar Gupta”), 28, from Thane, and Mohammad Saeed Patel, 25, from Sangli district.
According to the police, the bank accounts supplied by these accused were used to scam at least 26 people across the country, defrauding them of crores of rupees.
The case originated from a complaint filed on October 3 at the cyber police station of Pimpri Chinchwad by a 49-year-old manager from a leading automobile company in Bavdhan.
The complainant, who uses a Telegram ID and holds an HDFC Bank account, said that earlier this year — in July — he joined a Telegram group named “85 SC India stock circle.”
There, the group’s admin, going by the name “Lata Gupta” (likely a pseudonym), lured him with promises of high returns from share-market investments.
Between July 9 and September 9, the complainant was persuaded to transfer a total of ₹2,19,04,794 into various bank accounts — purportedly for investments and associated fees — following the scammers’ instructions. It was only later that he realised the entire scheme was a scam.
Further investigation revealed a significant detail: a portion of the money — ₹78 lakh to be precise — was routed into an account at Saraswat Bank belonging to a nurse in Sangli.
Upon questioning, she disclosed she had handed over her account credentials to her acquaintance, Mohammad Saeed Patel, whom she had met earlier in Nashik. Patel was arrested on November 10.
Subsequently, the probe unravelled that Thakkar had obtained the nurse’s bank account details from Patel.
According to police, Thakkar paid Patel ₹12 lakh for the use of the bank account in money-laundering operations.
On November 16, a police team led by PSI Sagar Poman located and arrested Thakkar in Mumbai.
During interrogation, Thakkar admitted that he had handed over the nurse’s account to “Fortune” after receiving cryptocurrency (Binance USDT) from him.
Because “Fortune” used disposable virtual numbers, tracing his location posed a serious challenge.
To overcome this, the cyber police instructed Thakkar to remain in contact under their surveillance and relay any updates regarding his associate’s whereabouts.
In one intercepted conversation, “Fortune” informed Thakkar of his intention to fly from Varanasi to Ahmedabad.
Before departing, he reportedly sent a photo of his luggage to Thakkar. Acting swiftly, police laid a trap at the Ahmedabad airport and arrested Bhadoriya on November 23.
As per Assistant Inspector Pravin Swami, the investigation unearthed evidence that linked Bhadoriya’s supplied accounts — including the nurse’s — directly to the fraud affecting the complainant and several other victims.
Police believe Bhadoriya, a postgraduate in Hindi, had been involved in such cyber-frauds for the past two years.
They suspect he may have profited over ₹1 crore by supplying bank accounts to cybercriminal networks allegedly operating from China.
Six mobile phones were seized from him during the arrest, and authorities are continuing a comprehensive probe into additional bank accounts that may have been used for analogous scams.
So far, banks have frozen ₹39,62,315 — an amount transferred by the complainant — as the probe continues.
Meanwhile, PSI Ravikiran Nale is leading the ongoing investigation into tracing and dismantling the broader cyber-fraud network.
#CyberFraud #ShareTradingScam #BankAccountSupplier #PimpriChinchwadPolice #CryptoFraud #ChinaCyberCrime #FraudAlert #FinancialScamPrevention
