₹1.40 crore scam: Cyber Command arrests four fraudsters at Bengaluru University
Sleuths of Cyber Command Unit busted a ₹1.40 crore cyber fraud in which a gang allegedly impersonated a university president on WhatsApp and duped an accountant into transferring ₹1.40 crore from the institution’s bank account. Four persons were arrested and ₹8.50 crore in cash and four mobile phones were seized.
The case came to light after Santosh AS, an employee of the prospective private university, approached the police on September 9 and reported that an unknown person had created a fake WhatsApp profile using the photo of university president Chenraj Roychand and a new mobile number.
According to the complaint, on September 8 at around 10:03 am, the fraudster contacted the university’s accountant, Vinay Bhushan, posing as the president, and asked him about the balance in the university’s bank account. At around 11.34am, the accused instructed him to transfer ₹1.40 lakh via WhatsApp. The accountant believed the message to be genuine and transferred the money.
A case has been registered at the South Division Cyber Crime Police Station under Section 66(D) of the IT Act, 2000 and Section 318(4) and 319(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.
The investigation revealed that the accused first sent a ZIP file to the institute’s employees. By accessing the system through the Chrome browser and logging into WhatsApp Web, they allegedly gained access to institutional data without staff knowledge.
The gang then monitored the institution’s financial transactions for 15 to 20 days before the fraudulent transfer. The defendant allegedly pretended to be the president of the university when communicating with the accountant. Foreign IP addresses were also found to be used during the transactions.
Acting on technical information, the police arrested Annayya (25) at KR Puram in Bengaluru. Two other accused, Buspalli Ravikumar Reddy, 26, and Ambaraya, 39, were arrested in Hyderabad during the raid. Acting on the information they provided, the police arrested Syed Wajihuddin Quadri (25) in Hyderabad when he came to collect the money.
All four accused were arraigned.
The fifth accused, Sunny alias David, is absconding and efforts are on to track him down.
Mule accounts in use
Police said the gang had a wider network. According to investigators, Sunny allegedly ordered Annayya to lure friends and acquaintances with promises of money, get bank accounts and check books opened in their names and hand over the account details to him.
Ravikumar Reddy and Ambaraya were said to have been prepared in Hyderabad while Quadri was called there to collect the money through checks and hand over the cash to Ambaraya.
During the operation, police seized ₹8.50 crore in cash, allegedly linked to another online fraud case in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, besides four mobile phones.
The interrogation reportedly revealed that the accused used more than 60 mule bank accounts in 22 online fraud cases across several states.
Published – 8th October 2026 19:00 IST