Gandhinagar, August 11, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
The Gujarat Police’s Cyber Centre of Excellence has arrested two men from Savarkundla in Amreli district for allegedly defrauding a complainant of Rs 2.54 crore through a fake company advertisement on Instagram and a fraudulent online distributor scheme.
Police said bank accounts allegedly linked to the accused have surfaced in 34 cybercrime complaints across 13 states, with 11 FIRs registered so far.
According to officials, the accused initially approached the complainant through an Instagram advertisement purportedly promoting Myer Holding Limited. He was directed to the website “shopmyerinr.com” and encouraged to register as a distributor.
The complainant was allegedly asked to add clothing, furniture, electrical and electronic goods to the company’s online platform and deposit 80 per cent of the product value into bank accounts provided by purported customer service representatives.
In return, he was shown a 20 per cent profit in dollars in an online wallet. Police said the complainant continued with the process after receiving bulk orders.
When he could not fulfil the increasing volume of orders, the alleged fraudsters told him that his store would be frozen within 48 hours and claimed the company had been taken over. He was then directed to another website, “storenviy.com”.
The complainant was subsequently asked to make several additional payments, including charges for unfreezing the account, repairing his credit score and withdrawing funds from the online wallet.
He was also allegedly asked to pay a fee for converting dollars into rupees after being told that his wallet balance had crossed USD 250,000. Further payments were demanded when he decided to close the online store.
Police said the complainant ultimately deposited Rs 2,53,91,066 into various bank accounts provided by the purported customer service, resulting in the alleged fraud.
During the investigation, police found that bank accounts recovered from the accused had recorded transactions exceeding Rs 25 lakh. The accounts were also linked to 34 complaints on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCCRP) from 13 states.
The complaints included four from Gujarat, seven each from Telangana and Maharashtra, five from Karnataka, two from West Bengal and one each from Kerala, Haryana, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Tamil Nadu.
Police said 11 FIRs have been registered in connection with these complaints in different states.
The arrested accused were identified as Kishan Savabaliya, 30, of Savarkundla taluka in Amreli district, and Haja Rathod, 32, of Friend Society near Kanakia College in Savarkundla.
Police said Savabaliya was the account holder, while Rathod allegedly obtained details of bank accounts used in the fraud and passed them on to other accused who are yet to be arrested.
Two mobile phones and a cheque book were seized from the accused.
Further investigation is underway.
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