Gandhinagar police have issued a Look Out Circular (LOC) against Utpal Patel, the key accused in the multi-crore ShootSpace Digital cloud storage investment scam at GIFT City, and arrested his wife Bhoomi and fellow director Dhruv Chaudhari.

According to top police sources, Utpal fled to Dubai before the complaint was registered with Dabhoda police station. "We have confirmed his location in Dubai and formally issued an LOC and further we will issue a Red Corner Notice (RCN) once the charge sheet is filed in the court," a police official told Mirror.

"Utpal Patel managed to sneak out of the country before the investors approached the police with an FIR," investigators said. "Now we are making all efforts to bring him back through proper channels including that of the Ministry of Home Affairs and also the Ministry of External Affairs," they added. Investigators believe more than 10,000 people may have been duped nationwide, with losses that could exceed Rs 500 crore.

"An SIT is formed and every victim is urged to contact Gandhinagar police," a top police official said.

The SIT had earlier arrested Arun Patel, 53, of Umedpur village, Aravalli district, and Sachinkumar Patel, 49, of New Naroda, both accused of hatching the conspiracy and floating ShootSpace Private Limited and ShootSpace Digital Private Limited to pose as large-scale cloud storage operators."Now that Utpal's wife Bhoomi and another accused Dhruv have been arrested, soon some more accused are likely to be arrested," an investigator told Mirror.

How the scam worked

Lavish offices were set up at Unit 303, Tower-D, World Trade Centre, GIFT City and at First Infocity. Fabricated agreements, bogus invoices and colourful brochures promised that investing in 1 TB of storage space would generate monthly rental income of Rs 38,640. Agents were allegedly lured with foreign tours and commissions for bringing in new investors. The company paid rental returns between February 2025 and March 2026, then stopped payments and closed.