ED arrests two in pan-India cyber fraud crackdown case

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The Enforcement Directorate has arrested two persons as part of its money laundering investigation into an alleged pan-India cyber fraud and digital arrests case involving transactions worth ₹30,000 crore, sources said on Monday (August 24, 2026).

They told PTI that Fahim Moin Hussain Sayed and Naim Mueen Sayyed were taken into custody on Sunday (August 23, 2026) from Mumbai.

The ED probe, according to the sources, was initiated after a Goa woman was allegedly duped after she was made to transfer ₹2.60 crore between May and June 2025 into some so-called "Secret Supervision Accounts" by the cyber fraudsters following a digital arrest.

The agency under the Union Ministry of Finance's Department of Revenue subsequently produced them before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Mumbai on Sunday (August 23, 2026), which handed over their transit remand to the ED for taking them to Panaji, Goa, where the case is registered, the sources said.

The agency is expected to produce them before a special court in Panaji on Monday (August 24, 2026) seeking their remand for custodial interrogation.

The agency, during the investigation, found the money cheated from the victim was taken into bank accounts, withdrawn in cash and then converted into foreign currency through RBI-licensed money changers.

The sources said the agency suspects bank transactions worth ₹27,000 crore and cash dealings of ₹3,000 crore by this alleged cyber criminal network, which reportedly figures in as many as 300 victim complaints and 150-160 FIRs filed across 20 States and Union Territories.

The reported fraud with the victims is estimated to be around ₹4,000 crore, the sources said.

The ED has conducted two rounds of searches in this case in Goa and Mumbai in July and the latest on August 21, seizing about ₹3.25 crore in cash, the sources said.

The money trail found that the shell or dummy companies involved had drivers and employees living in single-room accommodations as the directors, a classic modus operandi in such cases.

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