The Pimpri-Chinchwad police commissionerate has registered two high-value financial cyber crimes alongside an essential commodities raid, exposing a major wave of digital fraud and black marketing operating in Pune’s industrial twin city. In the largest single extraction, an organized stock trading syndicate fleeced a Pimple Saudagar resident of ₹4.43 crore using fake institutional applications.
Specialized cyber cell squads have initiated an extensive technical tracking sequence to trace the digital footprints and bank routes used by the syndicates.
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The Pimple Saudagar WhatsApp Trading Racket
The most severe financial blow targeted a resident of the premium Pimple Saudagar area between May 7 and June 1, 2026. According to Cyber Police Station Inspector Ravikiran Nale, the scam began when unknown operators added the victim to an unverified WhatsApp group. Posing as market strategists, the administrators promised astronomical returns exceeding 1,000 percent through exclusive, institutional stock block allocations.
To execute the trades, the syndicate provided a synthetic web link to a dummy trading application. Convinced by the high-yield promises, the victim transferred a total of ₹4.43 crore across multiple third-party bank accounts. The deception intensified when the fake app simulated a false portfolio valuation showing a profit balance of ₹26 crore. However, when the victim attempted to withdraw the funds, the operators demanded an additional upfront service charge of ₹1.07 crore, exposing the fraudulent nature of the pipeline.
The Facebook Senior Citizen Pension Card Scam
Simultaneously, the Sant Tukaram Nagar police station has registered a separate criminal case detailing the targeted exploitation of a senior citizen in Udaymanagar, Pimpri. Operating on June 4, an unidentified Facebook account holder published a series of misleading advertisements regarding a government-backed “Senior Citizen Pension Card” scheme designed to distribute monthly financial grants.
Senior Inspector Suhas Avhad confirmed that the scammer successfully engaged the elderly complainant through direct messages to build social trust. Under the pretext of verifying eligibility requirements and processing compliance profiles, the operator clandestinely acquired two distinct bank account numbers belonging to the victim. Bypassing standard security thresholds, the fraudster systematically drained a net sum of ₹9,16,900 from the accounts before the senior citizen discovered the unauthorized withdrawals.
Chakan Black-Market Domestic Gas Seizure
Outside the digital sphere, field enforcement cells intercepted a major commercial black-marketing operation on the Chakan-Agarkarwadi Road. Acting on precise field intelligence, Police Constable Shivaji Dattatray Lokhande led a tactical interception routine that caught a suspect red-handed while executing the illegal transport of essential household utilities.
The Chakan North police station has officially booked the operator under the Essential Commodities Act after discovering 23 fully refilled domestic LPG cylinders hidden inside a commercial vehicle. Investigators established that the driver intended to hoard and illegally liquidate the domestic gas stock at heavily inflated black-market rates across the industrial worker colonies. The police have officially seized the vehicle alongside the gas inventory, placing the total net value of the physical asset containment at ₹1.69 lakh.
