ED Nabs 3 More People in Pan-India Digital Arrest Case

Sources said Bhushan Suryakant Moye, Vilas Narayan Pawar and Shailesh Dagdu were arrested on Thursday under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. A special court in Panaji remanded them in ED custody till September 1.

The arrests take the number of persons held by the ED's Panaji office in the case to five. Fahim Moin Hussain Sayed and Naim Mueen Sayyed, both from Mumbai, were arrested on August 23 and remain in the agency's custody.

In a statement, the ED said its investigation began after Goa Police registered an FIR on June 9, 2025.

The case relates to a Goa-based woman who was allegedly placed under "digital arrest" by cyber fraudsters and duped into transferring Rs 2.60 crore to "Secret Supervision Accounts" between May 21 and June 2, 2025.

Digital arrest is a cybercrime in which fraudsters pose as law enforcement officials and threaten victims through audio or video calls, virtually holding them hostage and pressuring them to transfer money online.

The ED found that the money allegedly siphoned from the woman was deposited in 400 bank accounts, withdrawn in cash and subsequently converted into foreign currency through RBI-licensed money changers.

Agency officials had said the money trail led to an "interconnected" network of commodity trading, travel and forex entities that undertook banking transactions worth more than Rs 27,850 crore. Another Rs 2,904 crore was deposited in cash, including Rs 584.70 crore through 61,448 bulk note acceptance machine transactions at multiple locations across the country.

The ED said bank accounts of these entities were linked to as many as 300 cyber fraud complaints and 163 FIRs registered across 20 states and Union Territories, involving an aggregate reported loss of Rs 417.49 crore.

The agency conducted two rounds of searches in Goa and Mumbai in July and another on August 21, seizing about Rs 3.25 crore in cash.

The ED probe found that shell or dummy companies had named drivers and employees living in single-room accommodation as directors, which the agency described as a modus operandi used in such cases.