Palghar, Jan 6 (PTI) Police in Maharashtra have unearthed a massive international syndicate that defrauded hundreds of people of more than Rs 200 crore by luring them into online forex and gold trading schemes, officials said on Tuesday.

Seven persons, linked to more than 50 criminal cases lodged across several states in India, have so far been arrested in Maharashtra, with the police suspecting the masterminds were operating the racket from outside the country, they said.

The fraudsters targeted victims by building trust through matrimonial websites and social media platforms before inducing them to invest in fraudulent schemes, Mira Bhayander-Vasai Virar Police Commissioner Niket Kaushik said at a press conference.

The breakthrough came on November 12, 2025, when a police team, while probing a complaint of fraud, conducted a raid at the Shivsai Residency Lodge and Boarding on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway, he said.

Initially, five individuals were apprehended for conspiring to receive illegal funds through a network of bank accounts used for money laundering and tax evasion. The police have since arrested seven persons, the official said.

An investigation into the victims' complaints indicated that the accused contacted individuals on various matrimonial and social media sites, posing as potential partners or high-net-worth investors, according to the police.

After gaining the victims' confidence, they lured them with promises of high profits in forex and gold trading, sent links to bogus/fake websites that displayed manipulated trading data and provided them "mule" bank accounts to deposit the investment amounts, they said.

Once the money was deposited, it was immediately laundered through a complex web of accounts, often ending up outside India, the police said.

A probe into the bank accounts of the arrested accused suggested their links to 51 different crimes registered across multiple states, including Mumbai, Thane and Nagpur in Maharashtra, Delhi, Telangana, Karnataka, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal and Goa, the police said.

While seven key suspects were in judicial custody, the investigation suggested the "masterminds" were operating the racket from abroad, the police commissioner said.

"Our teams are working to trace the money trail, which currently exceeds Rs 200 crore. We are coordinating with various state police departments and cyber cells to consolidate these 51 FIRs and identify the overseas handlers," an official stated.

Those arrested have been identified as Roshan Kumar Siddharama Shetty, Abir alias Sachir Mohammad Khan, Sanad Sanjeev Das, Rahul Kumar alias Kailash Rakesh Kumar, Aamir Karam Sherkhan, Abhishek Anil Narkar alias Gopal and Mohammad Rashid Fakir Mohammad Baloch alias Lucky, the police said.

The Naigaon police have registered a case under various sections for cheating and fraud of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act.

The police have appealed to people to be cautious of investment advice received through matrimonial platforms and to verify the credentials of any trading website before transferring funds. PTI COR GK