In a significant follow-up action to the recent bust of a major international cyber fraud syndicate in Phagwara, Kapurthala Police has arrested another accused from Ludhiana and recovered a ₹2.05 crores hawala money from his possession, taking the total number of arrests to 39 and total recovered amount to ₹2.15 crores in this case, said Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav here on Tuesday.
The arrested accused has been identified as Pawan, a resident of Bikaner in Rajasthan. As per the information, Kapurthala Police had busted a major cyber fraud racket in Phagwara that primarily targeted people in the USA and Canada under the guise of providing software solutions, arresting 38 accused persons and recovering 40 laptops, 67 mobile phones, and ₹10,00,000 in cash.
DGP Gaurav Yadav said that the police teams have also zeroed-in on one Ludhiana-based hawala operator and raids are being conducted to nab him. Preliminary investigations have revealed that transactions were primarily conducted through Bitcoin, and hawala channels have also been found involved, he said. The DGP said that further investigations are on to establish forward and linkages in this case to expose the full nexus.
Sharing operation details, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Kapurthala Gaurav Toora said that following the human-based and technical investigations into the case, police teams have established involvement of Ludhiana-based person in this racket. Acting swiftly, police teams under the supervision of SP Investigation Prabhjot Singh Virk and led by DSP Detective Parminder Singh, Incharge CIA Jarnail Singh and SHO Cyber Crime Amandeep Kaur conducted raid at the premise of the Hawala operator in Ludhiana, where his assistant Pawan was arrested from the spot and cash worth Rs 2.05 crores was recovered.
The SSP said that the racket was being operated by a local individual identified as Amrinder Singh alias Sabhi Tohri, who had leased the premises in Phagwara. He is linked to Suraj from Delhi, who is further linked with a suspect named Shen from Kolkata.
In this regard, a case FIR no. 14 dated 19.09.2025 had already been registered under sections 111, 318(4) and 61(2) Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology (IT) Act at Police Station Cyber Crime Kapurthala.