The Cyber Crime Branch of Ahmedabad city has arrested five members of a cybercrime syndicate allegedly working with a Nigerian network to defraud Indian victims through sophisticated online scams.
The arrests were made under the supervision of senior officials from the Crime Branch and the Cyber Crime Division. Investigators revealed that the accused helped transfer money from victims to Nigerian handlers using the Angadia network and multiple bank accounts.
The case began with a complaint filed by Nihar Amarjit Verma, a 26-year-old businessman from Maninagar. He alleged that fraudsters posing as representatives of an African pharmaceutical company contacted him online, claiming they were seeking an Indian supplier of Eupatorium Mercurialis liquid, a homoeopathic medicine used in Africa to treat malaria and dengue.
The complainant was lured with a fake business proposal involving a fictitious Indian company, Sharma Enterprises Manufacturing, based in Bhilwara, Rajasthan. The fraudsters claimed the chemical could be purchased at 6,500 dollars per litre in India and sold for 11,000 dollars in Africa.
Trusting the offer, Verma purchased one litre for testing through a man named Jaydev, who introduced himself as a salesman for Sharma Enterprises, after paying ₹5.52 lakh. Later, when a supposed African lab scientist named Moshin Murray approved the sample in Delhi, Verma placed a bulk order and transferred another ₹27 lakh as an advance. When he visited Bhilwara, he discovered that the company did not exist, losing a total of ₹32.72 lakh.
Police investigations found that the Nigerian gang managed the scam through fake business deals involving chemical trade. The Indian associates provided bank accounts to collect funds, withdrew the money, retained a small commission, and sent the rest abroad through informal channels.
Of the total ₹32.72 lakh, ₹27.20 lakh was deposited into an HDFC Bank account under the name Kumar Enterprises operated by Nitin Bhatia, while ₹9.90 lakh was deposited into another HDFC account under BA Enterprises owned by Azghar Pathan. Both Bhatia and Pathan, along with their associates, withdrew the funds and handed them to Deep Goswami, who coordinated operations in Jamnagar and maintained contact with Nigerian handlers. Goswami reportedly received a 7 to 10 percent commission.
Police said Goswami and Pathan had previous criminal records related to similar offences registered in Jamnagar. During the raid, officers seized eight mobile phones, two chequebooks, one debit card, and one SIM card.
All five accused have been remanded in police custody for two days as investigations continue. A senior Cyber Crime officer stated, “The gang was systematically laundering money from cyber frauds to Nigerian operatives through multiple fake accounts and informal transfer channels. We are coordinating with other states where similar accounts were used.”
Complaints involving the same bank accounts have also been reported in Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Chandigarh, indicating that the scam may have a wider national reach. Police are tracing additional victims and attempting to freeze all related financial transactions.
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