The Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Panaji Zonal Office, has arrested three more persons in connection with a “digital arrest” cyber fraud case involving a Goa resident, taking the total number of arrests in the case to five.

Bhushan Suryakant Moye, Vilas Narayan Pawar and Shailesh Dagdu Chavan were arrested on August 27 under Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. The Special Court (PMLA), Goa, has remanded them to ED custody until September 1.

The agency had earlier arrested Fahim Moin Hussain Sayed and Naim Mueen Sayyed on August 23.

The investigation was initiated based on FIR No. 17/2025, registered by the Cyber Crime Police Station, North Goa, on June 9, 2025. According to the ED, the victim was kept on a video call and made to believe that she was under criminal investigation before being coerced into transferring Rs 2,60,33,634 into bank accounts falsely described as “Secret Supervision Accounts”.

The ED investigation allegedly revealed an organised network that received proceeds of cyber fraud through banking channels, converted the funds into cash and subsequently into foreign currency through companies holding Full Fledged Money Changer licences issued by the Reserve Bank of India.

The agency said the funds were distributed across more than 400 beneficiary accounts and routed through companies whose directors on record were allegedly persons of limited financial means, while the accounts were operated by other individuals. The arrangement was allegedly used to project the proceeds of crime as legitimate funds.

According to the ED, the bank accounts of these entities are linked to 330 victim complaints and 163 FIRs registered across more than 20 States and Union Territories. The reported losses in these cases amount to Rs 417.49 crore, while the entities have conducted banking transactions exceeding Rs 27,850 crore.

The agency alleged that Bhushan Suryakant Moye, a Chartered Accountant, incorporated 21 companies forming part of the network using identity documents supplied to him. He allegedly managed these companies and their 43 dummy directors as a single group and filed their income-tax returns collectively.

Vilas Narayan Pawar allegedly arranged the RTGS transactions through which the tainted funds were transferred into the network's accounts, while Shailesh Dagdu Chavan allegedly supplied cash against those transfers.

The premises of all three accused were searched by the ED on August 21. The agency said the laundering activity continued even after searches conducted on July 17 and remained active until days before the arrests made on August 23.

The ED said the latest arrests were necessary for custodial interrogation to establish the complete money trail and identify other persons involved in the alleged laundering network.