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Gurugram man cheated of ₹89 lakh on the pretext of investment

On Jadhav’s complaint, an FIR was registered against the woman and other unknown suspects under Section 66D (cheating by personation using computer resource) of the Information Technology (IT) Act and Section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code at Cyber Crime police station (West) on Saturday, said police

Published on: Feb 12, 2023, 23:40:41 IST
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A city resident was allegedly cheated of ₹89 lakh on the pretext of investment in foreign exchange trading, Gurugram police said on Sunday.

Gurugram man cheated of  ₹89 lakh on the pretext of investment
Gurugram man cheated of ₹89 lakh on the pretext of investment

Police said the amount also includes two personal loans of ₹25 lakh and ₹10 lakh, which the victim ended up paying the conmen, who are yet to be arrested.

The victim, identified as Manish Jadhav (46), a resident of Sector 22, had befriended a woman on an online application in November last year, investigators said.

They said that after a few weeks of chatting over the app, the woman started discussing investments in foreign exchange market and allured him by showing how people earn hefty profits in a short time. They said that she asked Jadhav, who is a senior executive in a private firm, to use a web-based application for making investments and a Telegram channel for customer support.

Police said that with the help of the woman, Jadhav made an initial investment of ₹50,000 after creating an account on the trading application using his driving licence details, mobile phone number and email address on December 2. Investigators said that within a few hours, he earned a profit of ₹12,240 after which the woman helped him to withdraw the entire amount of ₹62,240 and get it transferred into his bank account.

A senior police officer said that it bolstered Jadhav’s confidence after which he made an overall investment of ₹89 lakh in multiple transactions, which included the personal loan of ₹25 lakh and ₹10 lakh for tax payment. “Like the first transaction in which he had made profit, the woman suggested withdrawing the money on January 10. By that time, Jadhav was shown to have earned a profit of about $92,970 (approximately ₹76.71 lakh) on his investments. But when he tried to withdraw, the customer support asked him to pay 30% tax on the profit,” he said.

The officer said Jadhav had alleged that the woman suggested paying half of the tax amount for which he was forced to take a second personal loan of ₹10 lakh.

Jadhav alleged that after depositing the money in the firm’s account, the woman did not help in getting the part of profit and principal withdrawn and demanded more money. He realised that he had fallen victim to a fraud.

When contacted, Jadhav said that he was in touch with police to get the cheated amount back. “They are working on the case,” he added.

Inspector Amit Kumar, station house officer (SHO) of Cyber Crime (West) police station, said they are investigating the case. “We are trying to gather details about the suspects and their location,” he added.

On Jadhav’s complaint, an FIR was registered against the woman and other unknown suspects under Section 66D (cheating by personation using computer resource) of the Information Technology (IT) Act and Section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Cyber Crime police station (West) on Saturday, said police.

  • Debashish Karmakar
    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Debashish Karmakar

    Debashish Karmakar is a principal correspondent with the Hindustan Times, Gurugram bureau. He has a vast journalistic experience of almost 14 years of covering crime, court, power, transport, administration, weather and other beats while working across various organisations. He has been covering Gurugram, Faridabad, Nuh, Palwal and other districts of southern Haryana for more than four and a half years. He has produced several breaking and exclusive stories while reporting from the ground where he maintains a strong presence on a daily basis. He writes news articles which are hard-hitting and accurate. With his strong bureaucratic sources, he frequently writes stories to expose the failure of the system forcing authorities to take necessary course-corrective steps. Besides crime, important convictions and court orders, he also writes on human-angle stories, on power issues and challenges faced by the residents on a daily basis in Gurugram and neighbouring areas. In the past, he worked for media houses like The Times of India, where he extensively reported on important government matters and daily proceedings at the Patna High Court. He has also worked in the electronic media and had done ground coverage on the Kedarnath deluge that wrecked Uttarakhand in 2013.Read More