MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested an advocate at Mumbai airport in connection with a money-laundering probe into an alleged pan-India cyber fraud and digital arrest network involving transactions worth Rs 28,000 crore, news agency PTI reported.Official sources said, the arrest takes the total number of people held in the case to seven.Rashesh Upadhyay, also known as Rashesh Shah, was intercepted by the ED’s Panaji unit at a boarding gate inside Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport while he was preparing to board a flight to Delhi. Customs and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel helped the agency locate him, the sources said.Upadhyay was subsequently taken to Panaji and produced before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court, which remanded him to ED custody until October 29.The probe originated from an FIR registered by Goa Police on June 9, 2025, after a woman from Goa allegedly lost Rs 2.60 crore to cyber fraudsters. The accused allegedly placed her under “digital arrest” between May 21 and June 2, 2025, and made her transfer the money into multiple mule accounts, according to an earlier ED statement.Seeking Upadhyay’s remand, the ED described him as a “key node” in the alleged network. The agency alleged that he helped get bank accounts linked to the network unfrozen after police complaints led to their freezing. He allegedly arranged the release of the accounts by bribing officials of the agencies concerned, with payments routed through ‘Angadiyas’ — a private network of individuals dealing in cash.The ED further alleged that although Upadhyay was enrolled as an advocate, he had neither appeared nor filed a ‘Vakalatnama’ on behalf of any accused or their companies.According to the agency, the money allegedly taken from the Goa woman was channelled through around 400 mule accounts linked to commodity, travel and foreign exchange companies operating through dummy directors. The funds were later withdrawn in cash and converted into foreign currency through money changers licensed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the ED said.The alleged network handled banking transactions worth nearly Rs 28,000 crore and deposited about Rs 2,900 crore in cash, the agency said. Accounts linked to the network have surfaced in more than 300 victim complaints and over 160 FIRs across 20 states and Union territories. Reported losses in these cases exceed Rs 400 crore, according to the ED.Investigators are working to identify officials who allegedly accepted bribes, as well as the Angadiyas and other intermediaries suspected of being involved. The agency is also tracing the alleged proceeds of crime.Digital arrest is a form of cyber fraud in which criminals pose as law enforcement officials and threaten victims over audio or video calls. They falsely claim to have placed the victims under arrest and pressure them into transferring money online.The government has clarified that digital arrest is not a legal procedure in India. People who encounter such fraud should report it immediately by calling the national cybercrime helpline at 1930 or visiting cybercrime.gov.in.
