2 min readKolkataApr 1, 2026 03:39 AM IST
Soon after the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday lifted the interim protection granted to industrialist Pawan Ruia and his family members in connection with a multi-crore online fraud involving shell companies and cryptocurrency-based money laundering, the West Bengal Police arrested the chairman of the Ruia Group from a hotel on the outskirts of Kolkata.
“Pawan Ruia has been on the radar of Bidhannagar and Barrackpore Cyber Crime Police for nearly two years. He was apprehended at 4:45 pm outside the Westin Hotel in New Town,” a senior police officer said.
Last November, the Cyber Crime Police, while probing a case of online fraud, arrested a close associate of Ruia from Delhi, which led to a money trail involving the industrialist and his family members who allegedly laundered online fraud money through a web of shell company bank accounts and crypto wallets. “The racket, operational since early 2024 or before, has defrauded over 1,000 victims across India through fake investment schemes, and digital arrest,” read the FIR that was filed on November 5, 2025.
While the initial probe began in Bidhannagar, the scale of the operation quickly widened. Data from the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) linked Ruia and his associates to a staggering 1,379 cyber fraud cases nationwide till October 31, 2025, with people losing Rs 2,315 crore.
The Calcutta High Court in December last year granted anticipatory bail to the industrialist, his son Raghav, and his daughter Pallavi in connection with the case.
Ruia now faces a battery of charges, including cheating, forgery, organised crime, and criminal conspiracy, among others, in Bidhannagar and Barrackpore police jurisdictions.
This is not Ruia’s first run-in with the law. He was arrested in 2016 in a Rs 50 crore forgery and theft case involving the Indian Railways.
Story continues below this ad
Known for acquiring companies and attempting to revive several ailing public sector undertakings (PSUs) in West Bengal, which earned him the sobriquet of ‘Turnaround Tycoon’, Ruia shot to fame after the Ruia Group, a company which he founded in 1993, took over Jessop & Co – a 225-year-old heavy engineering PSU.
