Accused Punit Kumar was arrested by ED on his arrival at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport from Nepal on April 3. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized 19.50 kg of gold worth over ₹14 crore from a bank locker linked to an alleged cybercriminal who is one of the masterminds of a syndicate that transferred abroad about ₹4,978 crore raised through various cybercrimes and online gaming platforms during 2020-24.
Accused Punit Kumar was arrested on his arrival at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport from Nepal on April 3. The locker was being maintained in his mother’s name with a Ballabhgarh branch of Indian Bank in Haryana, said the agency on Monday. The ED probe is based on several First Information Reports registered in Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh and other places.
In February-March, while probing the online gaming companies/websites incorporated in small island nations such as Curacao, Malta, and Cyprus, the agency had searched 14 locations and seized assets, including gold bars weighing 8 kg from the premises of Punit Kumar; ₹75 lakh in cash, jewellery, high-end luxury watches, luxury cars, and other articles. A large number of fake PAN cards/Aadhaar cards used for setting up shell entities — through which funds were laundered — were also found.
200 companies
More than 200 companies used for the operations were under the alleged direct control of another key accused, Ashish Kakkar, who was neither a director nor any office holder in these entities. His employees and associates were shown as directors or authorised signatories. He along with Punit Kumar and others facilitated outward remittances from the proceeds generated through cybercrimes, as alleged.
According to the agency, the syndicate took recourse to the servers located in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with a parallel system established in India, to support the syndicate’s operations in the UAE and to evade detection. The key members operated international virtual mobile numbers for instant messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal with pseudo-names such as Pablo, John, and Watson for masking their real identities.
In order to transfer the money abroad, at first they allegedly imported huge consignments declaring high value items, such as rose oil, solar panel machinery, from Dubai, Hong Kong, China, etc. into various Special Economic Zones (SEZs), including those in Mundra and Kandla. The same items were then exported from the SEZs itself. While against the imports, ₹4,978 crore were transferred overseas, no inward remittances were realised against the export of goods. Such transactions amounted to “hawala” operations via circular trading.
25 premises searched
Earlier in May 2023, the ED had searched 25 premises in Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh in the same case.
Pursuing the leads, the agency zeroed in on Ashish Kakkar earlier this year. Acting on a tip-off that he was planning to visit a hotel or resort in and around Gurugram and Manesar in Haryana attending the wedding function of his brother-in-law, ED teams were deployed at multiple locations to intercept him. On March 2, he was finally tracked to Hotel Holiday Inn (Gurugram) and arrested.
The ED found the suspect online gaming platforms were linked to the bank accounts opened in the name of individuals located in India. Funds were also being generated through investment frauds involving multi-marketing scheme and part-time job offers. Websites with names similar to the popular/trusted ones were created and circulated on social media/chat apps to trap prospective victims. For instance, a fraud cryptocurrency exchange website having a name similar to that of one Korean crypto site was used to cheat investors. Fake online shopping links and bogus loan apps are also employed to scam people.