Surat: A 72-year-old senior citizen has fallen victim to a massive cyber fraud, losing ₹1.47 crore after being placed under “digital arrest” by scammers posing as Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officers.

The Modus Operandi

The fraudsters contacted the elderly victim and falsely claimed that his Aadhar card had been used to issue a SIM card involved in a high-profile money laundering case against Naresh Goyal, which was supposedly being investigated by the Mumbai Crime Branch.

Under the guise of a CBI operation, the scammers threatened to freeze all of the victim’s assets. They coerced the senior citizen into liquidating all his investment portfolios and transferring the funds into bank accounts they provided.

A 28-Day Ordeal and Police Intervention

The perpetrators managed to keep the victim under this “digital arrest” for a grueling 28 days. The elaborate scam finally came to light when the bank alerted the authorities that a digital arrest crime was taking place, prompting the police to formally register a case.

Serial Fraudster Arrested in Cyber Fraud Case; He is from Late Poet Nhanalal's Family (in video – Police briefing) https://t.co/I1F8jwIgX8 pic.twitter.com/VCUaE1HJ5o

— DeshGujarat (@DeshGujarat) May 11, 2026

During the technical investigation, cyber officials traced the money trail and discovered that out of the total ₹1.47 crore, ₹39 lakhs had been transferred to an ICICI Bank account based in Ahmedabad.

Serial Offender Identified

Police identified the holder of the Ahmedabad bank account as Urjit Kavi. Utilizing the Inter-operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS), authorities discovered that Kavi is a serial offender with five other criminal cases registered against him, independent of the current Surat City Cyber Cell case. His criminal record includes two cybercrimes in Kota and Delhi, two fraud cases in Ahmedabad, and one case in Vadodara. Kavi is from Kavi Nhahalal’s family. Nhalalal(1877-1946) was Gujarati poet and son of another Gujarati poet Dalpatram.

The scale of the fraudulent network appears to be massive. Investigations revealed that the accused’s bank account has 12 separate complaints registered against it on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCCRP), involving suspicious transactions totaling ₹2.84 crore.

Authorities have stated that efforts are currently ongoing to track down and apprehend the other individuals involved in the syndicate. DeshGujarat