CBI arrests key accused in cyber fraud case targeting U.S. nationals

You don’t have any Active Subscription.

Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription

Image for the purpose of representation. | Photo Credit: File

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested a key accused in connection with a transnational cyber-enabled financial fraud case involving illegal call centres that targeted U.S. nationals.

The accused has been identified as Ankit Satishchandra Pandey. The agency registered the case against him and others on September 8, following allegations that a syndicate had been running illegal call centres from Gujarat’s Ahmedabad since 2024.

“The accused persons impersonated as officers of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), U.S. Attorney, Critical Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and other federal agencies, falsely informing the victims through VoIP communications that their identities were used by someone to access child pornography through their computer systems,” the agency said.

Thereafter, they allegedly induced the victims to withdraw funds from their bank accounts, purchase gold and hand it over to courier persons engaged by the syndicate in the United States. The agency has so far quantified the defrauded amount as over $7.21 million.

After registering the case, the CBI conducted searches at multiple locations in Ahmedabad and seized electronic and digital evidence before it arrested the main accused on Wednesday (September 23, 2026).

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.