ED Arrests Three More in Goa Digital Arrest Fraud Case; Total Arrests Reach Five
The Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Panaji Zonal Office, has arrested three more individuals in connection with a digital arrest cyber fraud case involving a Goa resident. 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, has remanded them to ED custody until September 1, 2026.
With these arrests, the total number of people arrested in the case has risen to five. Fahim Moin Hussain Sayed and Naim Mueen Sayyed were arrested earlier on August 23, 2026.
The ED launched 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 pressured into transferring ₹2,60,33,634 to bank accounts falsely presented as “Secret Supervision Accounts”.
The ED’s investigation reportedly uncovered an organised network allegedly designed to receive proceeds from cyber fraud through bank transfers, convert the funds into cash and then exchange the cash into foreign currency. The agency stated that companies holding Full Fledged Money Changer licences issued by the Reserve Bank of India were used as part of this process.
According to the ED, the funds were distributed across more than 400 beneficiary accounts before being routed through companies whose registered directors were allegedly individuals with limited financial means, while other people operated the accounts. The agency suspects that this arrangement was used to make the proceeds of crime appear legitimate.
The ED further stated that accounts linked to these entities have been connected to 330 victim complaints and 163 FIRs across more than 20 States and Union Territories. The reported losses in these cases amount to ₹417.49 crore, while banking transactions through the accounts have exceeded ₹27,850 crore.
Investigators have also outlined the alleged roles of the three newly arrested individuals. Bhushan Suryakant Moye, a Chartered Accountant, allegedly incorporated 21 companies within the network using identity documents provided to him. The ED claims he managed these companies and their 43 dummy directors as a group and filed their income-tax returns collectively rather than handling them as separate assignments.
Vilas Narayan Pawar allegedly arranged the RTGS transactions through which the suspected proceeds of crime entered the network’s bank accounts, while Shailesh Dagdu Chavan allegedly supplied cash in exchange for those transfers.
The ED said the premises linked to all three individuals were searched on August 21, 2026. According to the agency, the suspected laundering activity continued even after searches conducted on July 17, 2026, and remained active until days before the arrests made on August 23. The latest arrests were considered necessary for further custodial interrogation and investigation into the alleged money-laundering network.
News Source : Directorate of Enforcement (ED) – Official Press Release, Government of India
