Mumbai: Three days after Mumbai Police uncovered a massive mephedrone manufacturing unit in Nalasopara’s Pelhar area, the Mira Bhayandar Vasai Virar (MBVV) Police Commissioner on Monday suspended the senior inspector of Pelhar police station for failing to detect the illegal operation running almost under his nose.

Police Commissioner Niket Kaushik issued the suspension order against Senior Inspector Jitendra Vankoti, citing ‘inexcusable negligence’ in monitoring his jurisdiction. The order noted that the illegal factory was located barely 200–300 metres from the Pelhar police station. Despite its proximity, Vankoti claimed he was unaware of the activity, a response the department found unacceptable.

“The site of the above incident was 200 to 300 meters away from Pelhar police station, but during the interrogation, Senior Police Inspector Jitendra Vankoti has stated that he was unaware of the incident,” the order stated. It further mentioned that despite his subordinates being engaged in related intelligence and patrol duties, the inspector failed to ensure effective monitoring, obtain confidential information, or initiate timely action against illegal businesses.

The disciplinary action follows a major operation conducted by Mumbai Police’s Zone-6 Narcotics Cell in coordination with Tilak Nagar police, which raided the factory in the Rashid Compound area of Pelhar, Nalasopara (East) on October 25. During the raid, officers seized over 7 kilograms of mephedrone (MD) and precursor chemicals valued at around Rs 13.5 crore, along with raw materials worth another Rs 1 crore.

Five individuals, including the key manufacturer of the synthetic drug, were arrested. Among them is Sohail Abdul Saif Ali Khan, a former hawker from Mumbra who allegedly transitioned into large-scale drug production. Police said Khan operated multiple luxury vehicles, including a BMW, and had been running the illegal unit for nearly 10 months, producing around 50 kilograms of contraband every month.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone-6, Chembur) Sameer Sheikh supervised the operation, which exposed an intricate network of distribution linked to Mumbai’s narcotics supply chain.

Mumbai: The Chembur Police have registered a case against Mohammad Ali Mohammad Salim Shaikh, 40, for allegedly duping ten people of Rs83.12 lakh under the pretext of offering lucrative returns on investments in his goat trading business.

According to the FIR, the accused lured victims by promising a monthly profit of Rs5,000 on every Rs1 lakh invested. The complaint was filed by Abdul Aziz Abdul Salam Sayyed, 35, a mehndi artist residing in the Diamond Garden area of Chembur.

Sayyed told the police that in December 2023, a woman named Nilofar, who worked with him, introduced him to her cousin Mohammad Ali, claiming he was engaged in goat trading. Nilofar assured Sayyed that she herself had invested Ra3 lakh with Ali in 2017 and was earning Rs15,000 per month in returns.

Trusting them, Sayyed invested Rs2 lakh in December 2023, followed by Rs5 lakh in March 2024. Initially, Ali paid the promised monthly returns in cash. Sayyed later invested an additional Rs3 lakh in May 2024, and subsequently another Rs5 lakh, taking his total investment to Rs15 lakh.

However, Ali allegedly stopped paying profits from April 2025 and became untraceable, ignoring Sayyed’s calls. When Sayyed and his mother, Tahera Abdul Salam Sayyed, 52, who had also invested Ra15 lakh went to Ali’s residence, his mother, Mariya Bee, allegedly gave evasive replies.

Soon after, Sayyed discovered that several others had been similarly cheated. The victims include Farheen Arif Shaikh (Rs4 lakh), Jinat Abdul Hadi Shaikh (Rs2 lakh), Sameen Mubarak Sayyed (Rs9.5 lakh), Mohammad Hamza Hasham Shaikh (Rs11.42 lakh), Afsana Kasim Sayyed (Rs2 lakh), Afsar Bashir Shaikh (Rs4 lakh), Yatin Sargdhar Dhaktode (Rs8 lakh), and Nilofar Mohammad Hamza Shaikh (Rs12.2 lakh).

In total, Ali is accused of collecting Rs83.12 lakh from ten investors under the guise of high-return goat investments.

The Police have registered a case under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Maharashtra Protection of Interests of Depositors (In Financial Establishments) (MPID) Act. Investigations are underway.

Jaipur, Oct 27: In a major breakthrough, the Jhalawar Police in Rajasthan have busted an interstate cybercrime network that infiltrated several central and state government welfare portals, including the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, Jan Aadhaar, Raj SSP (Social Security Pension), and the Disaster Management Department’s DMIS portal.

Superintendent of Police Amit Kumar said that the crackdown codenamed “Operation Shutdown” has led to the arrest of six accused and detention of two others across Delhi, Punjab, and multiple districts of Rajasthan, including Jaipur, Bharatpur, Dausa, and Jodhpur. Police have so far frozen Rs 1 crore across 11,000 suspicious bank accounts linked to the gang.

SP Kumar said the gang was involved in large-scale financial fraud worth crores by exploiting loopholes in government welfare schemes.

“This was an organised and well-connected interstate gang operating at both the state and national levels,” he said.

SP Kumar said that during the operation, which began on October 22, police recovered Rs 53 lakh in cash, note-counting machines, thousands of chequebooks, passbooks, and ATM cards, along with 35 laptops, 70 mobile phones, and data related to over 11,000 bank accounts.

“Luxury vehicles, including cars, motorcycles, and tractors, used by the accused were also seized,” SP Kumar said.

He said that among those arrested are Mohammad Laiq (Jaipur), identified as the State Nodal Operator of PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, accused of creating unauthorised IDs using his official credentials and performing illegal land seeding for ineligible beneficiaries.

“Subhash (Delhi) provided land seeding data for fake beneficiaries in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. Mohammad Shahid Khan (Bharatpur) is a former Land Development Bank employee who aided in fraudulent activations. Rohit Kumar and Sandeep Sharma (Jalandhar, Punjab) designed and managed clone websites resembling government portals. Sunant Sharma has been identified as the main handler of the gang,” he said.

SP Kumar said that two others, including Ramesh Chand (Phalodi Collectorate employee) and Bhag Chand (Dausa), were detained for facilitating bulk registrations and enrolling the highest number of ineligible beneficiaries in Jhalawar district.

“The gang exploited dormant or inactive registrations of ineligible beneficiaries. Data collected from rural agents was routed to operators like Laiq, who used official credentials to generate unauthorised nodal IDs at night. These IDs were used to bypass OTPs and reactivate accounts for ineligible beneficiaries, siphoning government funds overnight before deleting or disabling the login IDs by morning,” he said.

SP Kumar said that in the DMIS portal, criminals abused vulnerabilities in the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS).

“They accessed 1,500 SSO IDs and official emails — from collectorates to patwaris — to divert compensation funds meant for farmers into fake accounts. Forensic analysis of seized devices revealed sophisticated cyber tools used to bypass Aadhaar verification and gain access to e-Mitra Plus systems,” he said.

SP Kumar added that police have also recovered thousands of Pension Payment Orders (PPOs) and account details from social security schemes.

“Suspicious fund transfers were detected for over 17,000 beneficiaries in Jaipur, Jodhpur, and Sikar, indicating widespread data theft and manipulation. To dismantle the network, a six-member Special Task Force (STF) was constituted under Jhalawar Police, with support from cyber forensics units and intelligence agencies across multiple states,” he said.

He further pointed out that authorities say the investigation is ongoing, with more arrests likely as data analysis and inter-state coordination continue.