Fake Call Centre Busted in Varanasi: Nine Cyber Fraudsters Arrested for Share Market Scam, Demat Account Racket
Varanasi: In a major crackdown on cybercrime, police on Tuesday night busted a fake call centre operating from three rented flats in New Saket Nagar Colony under the Lanka area of Varanasi, arresting nine cyber fraudsters involved in large-scale online cheating linked to stock market investments and demat account misuse.
The accused were running an organised racket that lured victims into investing money in the share market, charged commissions, manipulated trades, and even sold demat accounts to other cybercriminals for use as mule accounts.
Addressing a press conference at the Police Lines auditorium on Wednesday, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Neetu Kadyan and ACP Cyber Crime Vidush Saxena said that the arrested accused include:
- Shomil Modanwal (Urdu Bazar, Kotwali, Jaunpur)
- Abhay Maurya (Hussainabad, Line Bazar, Jaunpur)
- Amit Singh (Pakdi village, Sarai Khwaja, Jaunpur)
- Aman Maurya (Padumpur)
- Krishna Vishwakarma (Badhai Tola, Kotwali, Jaunpur)
- Vijay Kumar alias Vicky (Sipah)
- Sujal Chaurasia (Shahabuddinpur, Bandari Station)
- Shiva Vaishya (Saidalipur, Badi Masjid)
- Abhishek Tiwari (Mehmudpur, Sikrara)
Police identified Shomil Modanwal and Abhay Maurya as the kingpins, who had been operating the gang for the past four months.
They had rented three flats in a posh residential colony at ₹25,000 per flat to avoid suspicion and continued their fraudulent activities from there.
According to police records, five complaints related to fraud committed from this location have already been registered on the National Cyber Crime Portal.
Officials said several other cybercriminals linked to higher layers of the network have been identified and will be arrested soon.
Interestingly, the educational profile of the accused revealed that one is a BTech graduate, one holds an MA degree, and the remaining are MBAs.
All are aged between 25 and 26 years and were found leading a lavish lifestyle, with luxury items and high-end living arrangements discovered inside the flats.
How the Fraud Operated
The gang used advertisements on platforms such as Meta and Google to promote stock market investment schemes. They also procured personal data—such as phone numbers, professions, and financial profiles—through Telegram and other online sources.
Using this data, they contacted potential victims directly. To avoid local exposure, they deliberately targeted people from cities like Lucknow, Hyderabad, Noida, and Bengaluru, and refrained from cheating residents of Varanasi or nearby areas.
Victims were persuaded to invest through reputed trading apps such as Angel One, creating an illusion of legitimacy.
The accused helped them open demat accounts and added them to multiple WhatsApp groups.
Within these groups, the fraudsters posed as successful investors, sharing fabricated profit screenshots and messages to build trust.
Initially, victims were allowed to make small profits. Once confidence was established, they were convinced to invest larger sums, after which the accused siphoned off the money.
In several cases, the gang earned hefty commissions by routing investments through demat accounts. Later, they intentionally caused losses so that victims would exit the groups on their own.
Demat accounts of those who exited were then sold to other cybercriminals, who used them as mule accounts for further fraud operations.
Earlier Training, Previous Escape
Police revealed that the accused had earlier received “training” at another fake call centre in Sigra.
On the night of August 20, cyber police had raided fake call centres in Sigra and Maldahiya, arresting 29 people.
During that operation, photographs of Shomil Modanwal and Abhay Maurya were displayed as Employees of the Month at the Sigra call centre.
Both managed to escape arrest at that time. Subsequently, they formed a new team and deliberately shifted operations to a residential colony, believing it would shield them from suspicion.
Goa Trip Planned for New Year
Investigators disclosed that all nine accused were planning to fly to Goa on December 31 to celebrate the New Year with their girlfriends. Their plans were cut short by the police raid.
Massive Seizure
From the accused, the police recovered:
- 24 grams of gold biscuit
- 20 mobile phones
- 7 SIM cards
- 1 bank passbook
- 4 PAN cards
- 9 luxury watches
- 3 laptops
- 2 Thar SUVs
- ₹4,88,920 in cash
Reward for Police Team
The successful operation was carried out by a cybercrime team led by Inspector Gopalji Kushwaha, along with Inspector Rakesh Kumar Gautam, Sub-Inspectors Rakesh Bhadoria, Vivek Singh, Shailendra Kumar, ASI Gaurav Tomar, Head Constables Gopal Chauhan, Rajnikant, Gautam Kumar, Divakar Vats, and Constables Chandrashekhar Yadav, Devendra Yadav, Anil Kumar Yadav, Anil Kumar Maurya, Jitendra Maurya, Ankit Prajapati, Manish Singh, Javed Akhtar and Triloki Kumar.
The police department announced a cash reward of ₹25,000 for the team in recognition of their exemplary work.
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