A sprawling cyber-fraud syndicate operating across multiple states faces intensified scrutiny as allegations of police bribery and a large-scale money laundering operation emerge, threatening to reshape the legal investigation.
Arun Dev Gautam, the Chhattisgarh director general of police, has filed a report before a Delhi court in a case that accuses IPS officer Rahul Bansal and two other policemen of taking a bribe to soften a cyber-fraud probe. Bansal has denied the claim, telling the court that the accusations are “baseless” and that he has “complete faith in the judicial process and the law”. The case remains before the Central Bureau of Investigation court.
The dispute began with a relatively small fraud complaint at Ambikapur Cyber Police Station last year, when a man said he had lost Rs 21.15 lakh in 84 transactions on two fake trading platforms. A team led by Bansal investigated the matter and later filed a chargesheet against 23 people. According to the court’s July 1 order, the complainant moved the bench after, he said, neither Chhattisgarh Police nor the CBI had acted on the matter.
What started as a local complaint has since widened into what police describe as a far larger racket. Sarguja range inspector general Deepak Kumar Jha told The Indian Express that investigators view the operation as a “sophisticated, multi-state, internationally operated organised cyber-fraud syndicate” and said two suspected leaders, Anshul Ginotra of Haryana and Garvit Jain of Delhi, are still absconding. Non-bailable warrants have been issued against them, and Jha said he is also examining the bribery allegations.
Police sources say the network used 38 fake trading portals, reaching 19,340 users, and moved money through mule accounts, payment gateways, hawala and cryptocurrency channels. Investigators have linked two platforms alone to cryptocurrency transactions worth more than Rs 1,880 crore over four months, while a separate ledger allegedly showed Rs 601.90 crore in laundering flows in under two months. The probe has already led to 23 arrests across eight states, and officers now believe the scheme may have been running since 2022, suggesting the scale could be even larger.
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