ED Arrests Three More in Goa Digital Arrest Fraud Case; Total Arrests Reach Five
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Panaji Zonal Office, has arrested three more individuals in connection with a suspected digital arrest cyber fraud targeting a Goa resident. The latest arrests take the total number of accused arrested in the case to five.
Bhushan Suryakant Moye, Vilas Narayan Pawar and Shailesh Dagdu Chavan were arrested on August 27, 2026, under Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. The Special Court (PMLA), Goa, remanded all three to ED custody until September 1, 2026.
Earlier, the agency had arrested Fahim Moin Hussain Sayed and Naim Mueen Sayyed on August 23, 2026.
The ED initiated its investigation based on FIR No. 17/2025, registered on June 9, 2025, by the Cyber Crime Police Station in North Goa. According to the complaint, the victim was kept on a video call and made to believe that she was under criminal investigation. She was allegedly threatened and pressured into transferring ₹2,60,33,634 to bank accounts falsely presented as “Secret Supervision Accounts”.
The ED investigation uncovered what it described as an organised financial network allegedly designed to receive money generated through cyber fraud, convert bank transfers into cash and subsequently exchange the cash into foreign currency through companies holding Reserve Bank of India (RBI) licences for Full Fledged Money Changer (FFMC) operations.
According to the agency, the money was split across more than 400 beneficiary bank accounts before being routed through companies whose directors on record were allegedly individuals with limited financial means. The accounts were reportedly operated by other people to disguise the origin of the funds and make the proceeds of crime appear legitimate.
The scale of the suspected network is significant. Accounts linked to these entities have reportedly figured in 330 victim complaints and 163 FIRs across more than 20 states and Union Territories. The reported losses stand at ₹417.49 crore, while banking transactions through the network have exceeded ₹27,850 crore.
The ED has also outlined the alleged roles of the three newly arrested individuals. Bhushan Suryakant Moye, a Chartered Accountant, allegedly incorporated 21 companies using identity documents provided to him. He reportedly managed these companies and their 43 dummy directors as a single group and handled their income tax returns collectively rather than individually.
Vilas Narayan Pawar allegedly arranged the RTGS transactions through which suspected proceeds of cyber fraud entered the network’s bank accounts, while Shailesh Dagdu Chavan allegedly supplied cash against those transfers.
The premises linked to all three individuals were searched on August 21, 2026. The ED stated that the suspected money laundering activities continued even after earlier searches conducted on July 17, 2026, and remained active until days before the first two arrests on August 23.
The agency said the continued activity made further arrests and custodial interrogation necessary. The investigation is ongoing to identify other individuals involved and trace the alleged proceeds of the cyber fraud network.
News Source : Directorate of Enforcement (ED) – Official Press Release, Government of India
