A Surat businessman thought he’d found a match on a matrimonial site. Instead, he found a syndicate stretching from Rajkot to Delhi to Nepal — and lost Rs 2.30 crore before he realized it.
The Setup: “Jigyasa Kapoor”
It started the way many modern matches do — a profile on a matrimonial website. The profile belonged to a woman calling herself “Jigyasa Kapoor,” seemingly an ideal, financially savvy match. She built rapport with the victim, a Surat resident, then moved the conversation to a messaging app called Dilsafar, where trust deepened further.
Gujarat’s State Cyber Centre of Excellence SP Dr Rajdeepsinh Zala confirmed that this profile was entirely fabricated, created specifically to identify and target financially stable victims.
The Pivot: From Romance to “Forex Tips”
Once trust was established, the conversation shifted. “Jigyasa” began sharing forex trading tips, pointing the victim toward a platform called RoboForex. He was told he could earn significant profits by following her guidance.
The scheme followed a classic confidence-building pattern:
- The victim was asked to open an account and invest a modest Rs 50,000 to start.
- The fraudsters let him withdraw real profits on that first investment — enough to convince him the opportunity was genuine.
- Emboldened, he was persuaded to invest larger and larger sums under various pretexts.
By the time the truth became clear, he had poured in a total of Rs 2.30 crore — none of which was ever returned.
Pulling the Thread: A Banking Kit Passed Hand to Hand
When Gujarat Police’s Cyber Centre of Excellence — operating under “Operation Mule Hunt 2.0” — began investigating, they traced the money through a chain of mule bank accounts, and the chain kept getting longer.
It reportedly started with a bank account opened in the name of a firm, R.P. Chemicals, by an accused named Raj Padsala of Anand. This “banking kit” (account credentials, passbook, linked SIM/cards) was allegedly handed off for a commission to Yagnik Ramani of Rajkot, who passed it to Dr Jaydipkumar Ardeshna, a doctor operating a clinic in Upleta and known locally as “Doctor Upleta.”
From there, investigators say the trail extended to Laxman Vaghela of Rajkot, then through an individual named Pankaj Paswan to a contact in Delhi, and finally — through a person identified as Sarfaraz — the account was routed all the way to Nepal, where the fraud proceeds were allegedly disposed of.
The five people arrested so far:
| Accused | Location | Alleged Role |
|---|---|---|
| Raj Padsala | Anand | Bank account holder |
| Yagnik Ramani | Rajkot | Bank account supplier |
| Laxman Vaghela | Rajkot | Bank account supplier |
| Dr Jaydipkumar Ardeshna | Rajkot/Upleta | Bank account supplier |
| Sagar Gokani | Rajkot | Bank account provider |
Police seized seven mobile phones and two forged identity documents — an Aadhaar card and a PAN card — as evidence.
The Scale Behind One Case
What makes this bust significant isn’t just the Rs 2.30 crore lost by one victim — it’s what investigators found when they checked the R.P. Chemicals account against the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCCRP).
That single account, it turned out, was linked to 31 separate cyber fraud complaints filed across India, with a combined value exceeding Rs 15.31 crore flowing through it. This is the hallmark of a “mule account” network: one bank account, rented or sold for a commission, gets reused across dozens of unrelated scams before it’s flagged and burned.
Why This Case Matters
This isn’t an isolated incident — it’s a case study in how matrimonial fraud has evolved in India. A few patterns are worth noting:
1. Romance is the entry point, not the endgame. The matrimonial profile wasn’t really about marriage — it was reconnaissance and trust-building, a way to identify someone financially stable and lower their guard before pivoting to an investment pitch.
2. Small, real payouts build big, fake trust. Letting the victim withdraw early profits is a deliberate and common tactic — it’s the same logic behind classic Ponzi schemes, repurposed for one-on-one romance scams.
3. Mule accounts are the plumbing of cybercrime. The doctor-turned-mule-supplier and the chain of accomplices passing along a single “banking kit” shows how ordinary people — sometimes professionals with legitimate day jobs — get pulled into laundering fraud proceeds for a commission, often without fully grasping (or caring about) the scale of harm downstream.
4. These networks are transnational by design. Money moved from Gujarat to Delhi to Nepal in a matter of steps, illustrating why cyber fraud cases are so hard to fully unwind — jurisdictions change, and money crosses borders faster than paperwork does.
Legal researchers tracking this category of crime note that matrimonial cyber fraud has become one of India’s fastest-growing scam types, with losses nationally running into thousands of crores annually as fraudsters increasingly blend emotional grooming with investment scams rather than relying on romance alone.
How to Protect Yourself
A few practical takeaways from this case:
- Be wary of matches who pivot to financial advice. A genuine matrimonial connection has no reason to introduce you to a trading platform, however subtly.
- “Proof” withdrawals aren’t proof. Being allowed to withdraw a small early profit is a manipulation tactic, not a sign of legitimacy.
- Verify independently. Reverse-image search profile photos, and never rely solely on a platform’s “verified” badge.
- Treat unsolicited investment tips as a red flag, especially forex or crypto platforms recommended by someone you’ve only met online.
- Report early. If something feels off, report to the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (cybercrime.gov.in) or call 1930 immediately — faster reporting improves the odds of freezing funds before they’re laundered further.
The Bigger Picture
Gujarat’s Cyber Centre of Excellence deserves credit for tracing this case well beyond the initial complaint, exposing a mule account network tied to dozens of other frauds nationwide. But the case is also a reminder that romance scams and investment scams have merged into a single, more dangerous hybrid — one that preys on both the heart and the wallet simultaneously.
As the investigation continues, more arrests and links to this network are likely. For now, the case stands as a stark warning: on matrimonial platforms, due diligence isn’t just about compatibility — it might be what saves your savings.
This article is based on statements from Gujarat’s State Cyber Centre of Excellence and news reporting on the case. Investigation into the matter is ongoing, and details may evolve as further arrests are made.