AMRELI: An alleged digital-wallet and referral scheme involving the SD Pay and Apna Pay apps had crossed Rs 1,200 crore when it was detected in Gujarat’s Amreli district in September, investigators said. Police have registered 18 FIRs and arrested about a dozen accused so far.
Launched in 2024 by Dhaval Patel, identified by investigators as the prime accused, the app initially offered bill-payment and mobile-recharge services. It was downloaded by 15 lakh people through referrals after users were offered returns of 0.15% to 0.30% a day, depending on their investment slab, police said.
The alleged model depended on money from later investors to pay earlier ones, rather than income from production, sales or services, police said. After initial cashback offers failed to gain traction, the accused allegedly introduced referral payouts ranging from 30% at Level 1 to 3% for participants between Levels 10 and 15 of the chain.
Investigators said seven companies had been incorporated but none created value through production or services. One Surat investor who put in Rs 1,000 and later earned Rs 1 crore had built a chain of 1.6 lakh investors, investigators said, illustrating the difficulty of separating alleged perpetrators from victims.
As new investments slowed, daily returns stopped by March 2026. Investors with deposits exceeding Rs 15 lakh were allegedly pressed to accept notional shares ahead of a proposed initial public offering instead of receiving their money. Amreli Superintendent of Police Sanjay Kharat said an accused arrested from Rajkot, Santosh Pathak, had added 1 lakh investors and had Rs 16 crore accrued in his SD Pay account as of October 30.
The inquiry began after a Savarkundla computer operator complained on June 6 that Ashish Gediya and Bhavesh Chauhan had cheated him of Rs 2 lakh through the app. He withdrew the complaint after a refund, but police continued investigating after finding that investments were allegedly collected through cash and angadia couriers while refunds were sent by bank transfer.
Police traced funds to a Yes Bank account held by Shiv Dharti Communication Pvt. Ltd., against which four online-fraud complaints from different states had been recorded on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, according to the investigation. A separate FIR involving the same group had been lodged with Gujarat CID Crime in September 2025, a senior police officer said.
The accused have been booked by Amreli Cybercrime Police under provisions related to cheating and criminal conspiracy, as well as the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act, Gujarat’s depositor-protection law, the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act and the Information Technology Act. The investigation is now focused on identifying participants’ roles and tracing investors’ funds.
