Interstate cyber fraud racket busted in Zirakpur; 10 arrested

Police have arrested 10 members of an interstate gang from Zirakpur who were involved in duping foreign residents on the pretext of providing loans at low interest rates. Nine laptops and 10 mobile phones were also seized from them.

The entire gang — with members from Gujarat and West Bengal — was operating from a posh flat in a Zirakpur housing society. Society residents expressed concern over how such fraudulent activities were being carried out without their knowledge, raising questions about tenant verification.

Zirakpur ASP Ghazalpreet Kaur said the gang was defrauding people living abroad online by promising loans at low interest rates. The accused were caught red-handed while committing cyber fraud. A case (No. dated 18-04-2026) under Section 318(4) of the BNS and Section 66 of the IT Act has been registered against them at Zirakpur police station.

The arrested accused are being interrogated. Those arrested include Melvin Thakkar of Gandhinagar, Mehsana, Gujarat; Anirudh Palaniya of Bhawarna; Anant Dev Kaushik of Sabarmati, Ahmedabad; Pawan Pandewar Siddharth of Chandkheda, Ahmedabad; Sonu Dayali and Milan Sunwar of Jaigaon, West Bengal; Ashiq Darzi and Arjun Chhetri of Jaigaon, West Bengal; Prashant Om Prakash Jaiswal of Sabarmati; and Palwinder Singh of Lalru.

She further said that, as per the directions of their mastermind Melvin Thakkar, the accused used to contact people abroad via online calls and lure them by promising low-interest loans. In return, they would extract small amounts of money in dollars from the victims. The accused had no official authorisation to provide loans. In this way, they systematically targeted and defrauded foreign nationals online from India.