65-year-old woman loses ₹67 lakh in cyber fraud, accused arrested

It was found that ₹16 lakh was deposited to an account owned by a vegetable business trader but operated by the accused

MUMBAI: The South Cyber police arrested a man from Dahisar in connection with a cyber fraud wherein two elderly sisters were allegedly duped of ₹67 lakh under the pretext of share market investment.

One accused was arrested from Dahisar, the other one, from Mangaluru, is absconding/ (Shutterstock)

The accused were identified as Salid Mohammad Shaikh and Mohit Bhojraj. Bhojraj, a Dahisar resident, was handling over 20 bank accounts and had provided Shaikh with 19 bank accounts to use in the cyber fraud. Shaikh, a resident of Mangaluru in Karnataka, is absconding, said a police officer.

According to the police, the complainant, 65, lives in the Girgaon area with her mother and sister. Her mobile number was added to a WhatsApp group in January, and the group members shared screenshots of their investment profits. The complainant, influenced by the screenshots, discussed investing with her sister. The group admin, who went by Shruti Baheti, reached out to the complainant to boast about testimonies from her clients and convinced her to invest.

The two sisters, sold by the opportunity, began working on formalities for opening a Demat account as per Baheti’s instructions. They began investing money by transferring a total of ₹67.15 lakh directly to cyber frauds. Their virtual accounts showed profits of ₹1.88 lakh, added the official.

They suspected foul play after they could find a way to withdraw the money. They contacted Baheti and explained that they needed to withdraw ₹50 lakh. Baheti then told them that they must pay tax on the profits first. The cyber fraud began forcing them to transfer more money under the pretext of charges till the sisters realised they were duped, said the official.

After they approached the police, they reached out to the police helpline 1930 and a case was registered with the South Cyber police station under the charges of cheating along with IT Act. During investigation, the police followed the money trail from bank transactions. It was found that ₹16 lakh was deposited to an account owned by Hemant Mali, a vegetable business trader. However, Bhojraj was the one operating this account.