Ahmedabad: The offer seemed simple: lend a bank account for a month and pocket Rs 15,000. But when two months passed without payment, he inspected the account, only to discover transactions exceeding Rs 19 lakh. Angered by the deception, Talpada approached police for help to retrieve the Rs 15,000. That single lead blew the lid off an alleged cybercrime syndicate laundering at least Rs 2.2 crore in fraud money through bank accounts allegedly linked to casinos in Goa.
For Kamlesh Talpada, a Nadiad resident desperate for capital to launch his fruit business, it was an easy choice.
Talpada, 35, told Kheda district cybercrime police that he had shared his business woes with his friend Bhavin Darji, an autorickshaw driver. Talpada was told that the account would be used to transfer money received at casinos in Goa and that the arrangement was lawful, according to the FIR filed on Oct 23. On July 10, he offered to give me the money in exchange for using my savings account for a month. The complaint records transactions worth Rs 1.5 crore in Darji’s account with another bank, Rs 4.59 lakh in a second account and Rs 1.4 lakh in a third. Another account allegedly recorded transactions worth Rs 47.6 lakh.
“Darji introduced me to Janak Thakkar, a resident of Vadodara, who was said to be arranging bank accounts for the operation.
Thakkar said the money would be handed over once the funds reached his accounts,” he told police. Betrayed and alarmed, Talpada deactivated the SIM card linked to the account and approached the police. Police found that Talpada’s account was allegedly only one part of a wider operation.