Panaji, August 29, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested three more people, including a chartered accountant, in connection with a ‘digital arrest’ cyber fraud case in Goa in which a resident was allegedly coerced into transferring Rs 2.60 crore to accounts falsely described as “Secret Supervision Accounts”.
The ED’s Panaji Zonal Office arrested Bhushan Suryakant Moye, Vilas Narayan Pawar and Shailesh Dagdu Chavan on August 27 under Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
The Special Court (PMLA), Goa, has remanded the three accused to ED custody until September 1 for questioning. Their arrests take the total number of people arrested in the case to five. Fahim Moin Hussain Sayed and Naim Mueen Sayyed were arrested on August 23.
The ED launched its investigation on the basis of FIR No. 17/2025, registered by the Cyber Crime Police Station, North Goa, on June 9, 2025. According to the agency, the victim was kept on a video call and made to believe that she was under criminal investigation before being forced to transfer Rs 2.60 crore into designated accounts.
The agency said its probe uncovered an organised network allegedly used to receive proceeds from cyber fraud through banking channels, convert the funds into cash and subsequently into foreign currency through companies holding Full Fledged Money Changer licences issued by the Reserve Bank of India.
According to the ED, the funds were split across more than 400 beneficiary accounts before being routed through companies whose directors on paper were allegedly individuals without the means to operate such entities. The agency said the accounts were actually controlled by others and were used to project the proceeds of crime as legitimate funds.
The ED said the entities involved have figured in 330 victim complaints and 163 FIRs across more than 20 States and Union Territories, involving reported losses of Rs 417.49 crore. Their banking transactions have exceeded Rs 27,850 crore, it added.
The agency alleged that Moye, a chartered accountant, incorporated 21 companies in the network using identity documents provided to him. He allegedly managed the companies and their 43 dummy directors as a single group and filed their income-tax returns collectively rather than as separate assignments.
The ED said Pawar arranged the RTGS transactions through which the tainted funds entered the network’s accounts, while Chavan allegedly supplied cash against those transfers.
The premises of all three accused were searched on August 21. The ED said the alleged laundering activity continued even after searches conducted on July 17 and persisted until shortly before the arrests on August 23, prompting the agency to seek custodial interrogation.
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