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Mohali: Retired Colonel loses ₹2.5 cr to online trading scam
On the complaint of retired Colonel Sanjay Bhatia (retd) of Darshan Vihar, Sector 68, state cyber cell booked unidentified persons.
A retired Colonel lost savings worth ₹2.5 crore to stock investment scams run by fraudsters posing as investment experts.
On the complaint of retired Colonel Sanjay Bhatia (retd) of Darshan Vihar, Sector 68, state cyber cell booked unidentified persons.
In his complaint, Bhatia said he got interested in stock investments during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and started investing from his retirement savings and pension.
On February 24, 2024,he saw an advertisement of “Viking Global Investment” on Facebook. “They asked interested people to join a WhatsApp group, which I did. I was told by one Sarvesh, who posed as a stock Guru, that the US-based investment company is establishing their branch in Asia (India). He gave very good and convincing lectures on stock market trends, analyses and summaries. Then, the company launched a 600% profit plan and asked me to invest through their app,” Bhatia told police.
Bhatia deposited his savings in different accounts, which got loaded on the aforementioned app.
After the initial growth seemed good on the, he ended up pulling money from his shares’ investment, daughter’s and wife’s bank accounts. By the end of two months, he had invested ₹2.5 crore in the scheme.
“They (the company) assigned me to a separate VIP group on WhatsApp. So, Maya Salem, an assistant of Sarvesh and a fund manager Anuj Soni used to chat with me after the investment lectures. Now, on maturity of the plan, the app displayed that my investment had grown to more than ₹12 crore. When I wished to liquidate my investment and profit, I was asked to deposit an amount of ₹1.79 crore as TDS/service tax. Upon telling them to deduct the amount out of my profits, they said it was not possible due to company policy. Even partial withdrawal wasn’t permitted, which made me suspicious. Similarly, through another ‘Alicia app’, they fooled me of ₹40 lakh,” the victim added.
The Colonel added that Alicia group’s Shivangi Joshi, who was regularly in touch with him, stopped responding to his messages as soon as he sought withdrawal. Following these incidents, he lodged a complaint with the Mohali cyber crime police.
The accused have been booked under Sections 420 (cheating), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Information Technology Act at the Punjab State Cyber Crime police station.
Superintendent of police (Cyber Cell) Harinder Singh Maan said that many such complaints have been received in the recent past. “People should only invest through verified websites or through their banks only. We have closed many fake bank accounts after the probe. Many bank accounts were also freezed for recoveries,” Maan said.
