Engineering student in Lithuania among 2 held for cheating Surat woman of Rs 23 crore

THE SURAT Cyber Crime Unit said on Saturday that it arrested two persons, including a civil engineering student at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Lithuania (Europe), and his aide, for allegedly cheating a Surat-based woman of Rs 23.38 crore.

The police have found that the accused made different mule accounts and had been part of a Dubai-based Chinese gang allegedly involved in cheating Indian citizens. Police said 338 cheating offences – to the tune of Rs 410 crore – have been registered against the duo in 20 states.

The police identified the arrested accused as Abdul Rehman Akukara (23), a resident of Adajan Patia in Surat city and a second-year student at KTU, who reached Surat around three months ago from Lithuania, and his aide as Mohsin Khan (38), a resident of Nanpura in Surat who hails from Uttar Pradesh.

According to the police, the accused reached out to the complainant by promising high profits from share trading. They induced the complainant to download bogus applications and created a trading account in her name within these applications. Through these fraudulent apps, they coerced the complainant into transferring a total of Rs 23,38,800 into multiple accounts. By subsequently preventing her from withdrawing these funds, the accused committed online fraud against the complainant, police said. The victim registered a complaint under Sections 318(4), 336(2), 338, 336(3), 340(2), 61(2), and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, as well as Section 66(D) of the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008.

On the basis of details provided by the complainant, the police obtained information regarding a bank account and the mobile number linked to it. Following a technical analysis, two teams from the Cyber Crime Cell conducted an investigation over three-four days. Using these technical details, they tracked down and apprehended the accused near the Civil Crossroads late at night on October 22, 2026, officers from the Surat cyber crime unit said.

Surat Additional Commissioner of Police Karanraj Vaghela said, “Abdul Rehman created a bogus firm named in the name of the co-accused, Mohsin Khan. He opened four current accounts and 12 savings accounts across multiple banks and used them to facilitate the illegal transfer of funds obtained through cyber fraud.”

He said, “The accused persons worked for a Chinese gang— operating out of Dubai — that engages in cyber fraud. He would open these accounts, receive proceeds from cyber fraud into them, convert the funds into USDT (cryptocurrency) and then transfer them to the Chinese gang via third-party digital wallets, while retaining a commission for himself. They also received a commission for opening these accounts.” Vaghela added, “Between August 24, 2026, and September 16, 2026, the transactions totalling Rs 1,19,03,919 were recorded in a current account. A
check on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal revealed that 338 online complaints regarding these transactions have been registered in 20 states in which the fraud amount is around Rs. 410 crores.”

Story continues below this ad

Police said they seized 12 mobile phones, 17 debit cards (from several banks, including those from Lithuania and India), from the possession of the accused.