Hyderabad: The Hyderabad Cyber Crime Police have arrested a 32-year-old resident of Pune for his alleged involvement in an online gaming and betting fraud. The arrest was made based on a complaint from a person from Secunderabad who lost Rs 55 lakh between 2021 and 2025.
Vishal Anil Nirmal was also found to be involved in 22 other cybercrime cases across India.
According to the police, the complainant was first contacted by the fraudsters through WhatsApp and was introduced to an online betting website called ANGELBET777, which hosted casino and cricket betting games.
Initially, the complainant invested Rs 10,000 and received a small profit. Believing the platform to be genuine, he continued betting and deposited a total of Rs 10 lakh in 2021 through multiple transactions into bank accounts provided by the cybercriminals.
However, he lost the entire amount and stopped playing. In 2022, the victim was contacted by the fraudsters who urged the former to invest in another platform named GOEXCH777.
The fraudsters claimed the website was safe and profitable, and trusting them, the complainant continued to invest through bank transfers, UPI IDs, cash deposit machines, and QR codes across multiple betting websites.
By 2025, he had lost a total of Rs 55 lakh.
A case was registered under sections 66C and 66D of the IT Act, sections 111(2)(b), 318(4), 319(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and Sections 3 and 4 of the Telangana Gaming Act and one of the accused was arrested by Hyderabad police.
According to the police, the accused, Vishal, operated an organised online betting racket with his associates Guddu, Dweide and Suraj Bhusal.
Vishal had travelled to Dubai in October 2021, where he came into contact with Suraj Bhusal, a native of Nepal, who introduced him to the operation of illegal online betting platforms using agent ID panels.
When Vishal returned to India, he continued his association with Suraj and, on his advice, obtained an agent ID from the betting platform GOEXCH777 by paying Rs 20,000.
He attracted customers to betting websites through various advertisements on social media and bulk WhatsApp messages, promising easy and guaranteed earnings through online casino and cricket betting games.
Vishal also created several fake shell companies and procured 57 current bank accounts using forged firm names and rubber stamps and procured a large number of SIM cards to contact victims and circulate promotional messages.
Police said that Suraj Bhusal used to share customer data obtained from other betting platforms with Vishal, allowing a targeted outreach to potential victims.
Vishal spent approximately Rs 6,000 per day on social media advertisements to promote his website and also purchased bulk WhatsApp SMS software to send mass promotional messages.
When bank accounts linked to the fraud were frozen following complaints filed by victims on the NCRP portal, Vishal opened new current accounts in the names of additional fake shell companies to continue the illegal operations.
Police have asked public to be wary of online lottery and gaming advertisements on social media promising easy or guaranteed money and not to click suspicious links or download applications from unverified websites.
If anyone falls victim to a cybercrime, they are urged to seek assistance by dialing 1930 or visiting cybercrime.gov.in.
