Following its crackdown on cyber fraudsters, the Mumbai Crime Branch has claimed the arrest of seven additional suspects from Goa. Three individuals had previously been arrested in connection with the same case; this latest action follows progress made during the investigation. On September 11, acting on confidential information, Unit 5 of the Mumbai Crime Branch initiated proceedings against three individuals for cyber fraud, registering a case under Sections 318(4), 61, 45, and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 66(D) of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Subsequent developments led Unit 5 to take further action. The accused—along with their associates—would open bank accounts in their own names and the names of others, while also purchasing SIM cards in various names to link to these accounts. After opening the accounts, they retained direct possession and control of the passbooks, ATM cards, chequebooks, SIM cards, and other linked credentials, utilizing the accounts to commit cyber fraud. Items seized from them included 88 passbooks, 143 chequebooks, 100 ATM cards, 24 mobile phones, 167 SIM cards, and two laptops. Further investigation, utilizing technical analysis and AI, led to the arrest of seven more suspects on September 13; they were apprehended at a villa in a Goa resort where they had been operating the cyber fraud racket. The following items were recovered from them: 1) 59 mobile phones from various companies, 2) a total of 19 SIM cards from various companies, 3) 9 laptops, 4) 51 ATM cards, 5) 12 passbooks, and other materials. It has been revealed that the accused developed and utilized their own application to transfer funds obtained through financial fraud.
The court has granted police custody remand for the accused until September 24.
This successful operation was carried out by Mumbai Police Commissioner Deven Bharti, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Anil Kumbhare, Additional Commissioner (Crime) Krishnakant Upadhyay, and DCP Raj Tilak Roshan.

The Mumbai Police successfully arrested a man from Punjab who had engaged in character assassination and threatened to make a video viral unless the victim paid him extortion money. Posing as a woman on Snapchat and other social media platforms, the accused had contacted the victim—a resident within the jurisdiction of the Mulund Police Station—and extorted money by threatening to circulate her photos and videos. When the victim refused to comply with further demands, the accused sent the video to her relatives and others. Consequently, based on the complaint filed at the Mulund Police Station, a case was registered under Sections 308(2) and 351(2) of the BNS, and Sections 66(E) and 67(A) of the IT Act.
Recognizing the gravity of the case, an investigation team was formed under the guidance of senior officers to probe the matter. Through skilled technical investigation, the police identified the accused and obtained reliable information regarding his whereabouts. The accused, identified as Satnam Maninder Singh (aged 22)—a resident of Aadesh Nagar, Street No. 02, near Peepal Petrol Pump, Kotkapura Road, Sri Muktsar Sahib, Punjab—was subsequently arrested. The operation was successfully executed under the guidance of Deven Bharti (Police Commissioner, Mumbai), Manoj Sharma (Joint Commissioner of Police – Law & Order), Dhananjay Kulkarni (Additional Commissioner of Police – East Region, Chembur, Mumbai), Abhay Singh Deshmukh (Deputy Commissioner of Police – East Zone 03, Mumbai), and Sudarshan Honwadkar (Assistant Commissioner of Police – Mulund Division, Mumbai). The team involved included Senior Police Inspector Santosh Ghatikar (Mulund Police Station, Mumbai), Police Inspector Nitin Khadge, Assistant Police Inspector Abhijit Tekwade, and Police Sub-Inspector Sumit Sonawane.

Appeal to the Public
Citizens are urged to exercise extreme caution when accepting friend requests, messages, or video calls from unknown social media accounts. Furthermore, the Mumbai Police advises that there is no need to panic if someone demands money while threatening to circulate such videos or photos; instead, one should immediately contact the nearest police station.

Rais Shaikh, the Samajwadi Party MLA from Mumbai Bhiwandi East constituency, has demanded the establishment of ‘Minority Entrepreneurship and Business Incubation Centers’ across the state’s six revenue divisions. This initiative aims to assist minority youth in launching their own businesses, taking into account the significant size of the minority population. MLA Shaikh has written a letter regarding this matter to the Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Minority Development, Sunetra Pawar.
Highlighting the issue, MLA Shaikh noted that minorities constitute 20% of the state’s total population, with the Muslim community accounting for 11.54%. Due to poverty, the school dropout rate among Muslim students at the 10th and 12th-grade levels stands at 30%, and barely 10% of Muslim youth reach the stage of higher education. There is an urgent need to provide skill training and entrepreneurial encouragement to these students who have fallen out of the educational mainstream.
While research and training institutes such as ‘BARTI’, ‘Mahajyoti’, and ‘SARTHI’ provide skill and business-related training and opportunities to youth from other communities, ‘MARTI’—the institute dedicated to the minority community—has so far remained inactive regarding student training due to a lack of adequate funds. MLA Shaikh pointed out that the ‘Maulana Azad Minorities Financial Development Corporation’ could play a pivotal role in partnership with these centers. The Corporation could handle tasks such as integrating loan schemes, providing financial assistance, and managing the preparation and scrutiny of project reports. In a letter to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, MLA Rais Shaikh stated that if such centers are established, more than 1,000 young men and women in each revenue division would be able to start their own micro and small businesses annually.