Surat, Oct 14 — The Surat City Police Cyber Crime Branch have arrested a 54-year-old man in West Bengal for allegedly providing a bank account to cyber fraudsters to route proceeds from a Rs 24.4 lakh fraud in which a complainant's mobile phone was hacked through a fake Regional Transport Office (RTO) e-challan APK file, officials said on Wednesday.
The accused, Arikul Islam, a resident of Basubati village in West Bengal's Hooghly district, allegedly opened a current bank account in the name of a charitable trust he had established and handed it over to an absconding accused in exchange for a commission of Rs 50,000.
Police said the accused had allegedly sent the complainant a fake digital RTO e-challan application, named E-Chalan.apk, and induced them to download it.
The application was used to hack the complainant's mobile phone, following which Rs 24.4 lakh was transferred from their bank account to three separate bank accounts without their knowledge.
A case was registered at the Cyber Crime Police Station under Sections 318(4), 336(2), 338, 336(3), 340(2), 61(2) and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and Sections 66(C) and 66(D) of the Information Technology Act, as amended in 2008.
Investigators found that Rs 12,42,117 had been transacted through the current account held at Ujjivan Small Finance Bank between November 29, 2025, and May 3, 2026.
The arrest followed technical investigations conducted by a team led by Police Inspector M.C. Nayak, acting on instructions from senior officials.
"Two other accused, Ritik Bali, 26, and Tinku Parmar, 44, both residents of Badnagar in Madhya Pradesh's Ujjain district, had been arrested earlier in the case," the police said.
In its public advisory, the Cyber Crime Branch cautioned people against downloading APK files or applications sent by unknown persons under the pretext of RTO challans, banking services, customer support, KYC updates, government schemes, appointment bookings or grocery services.
Police also urged people not to click on suspicious links received through SMS or email and advised victims of financial cyber fraud to call the national cybercrime helpline, '1930', immediately, as prompt reporting can improve the chances of freezing the funds in beneficiary bank accounts.