Duo arrested for defrauding city bizman of ₹6.27 cr

Two accused from Pune arrested by Western Cyber Police for duping a businessman of ₹6.27 crore in a stock market investment con. Bank accounts frozen and money seized.

MUMBAI: The Western Cyber Police arrested two accused from Pune in connection with cyber fraud in which a businessman was duped of ₹6.27 crore using stock market investment con. The police said that the accused created a fake app and lured the victim with high returns from investment in the share market. The police have frozen 159 bank accounts having a total amount of ₹1.40 crore and seized ₹80 lakh from the bank account of the accused.

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The arrested accused are identified as Vikas Chavan, 43, a driver by profession, and Pradeep Krishna Lad, 32, who worked as an estate agent. Both are residents of Pune. But during investigation it was found that Chavan is the proprietor of Shanti Enterprises and ₹80 lakh was transferred to the company’s bank account by cyber fraud. Chavan was the account holder which was given to Lad to handle the bank account. Both had used money.

According to the police, a 63-year-old Bandra resident, who runs a wine shop, alleged that on January 7, he saw an advertisement on social media about investing in share trading on Goldman Sachs. He clicked on the advertisement and was redirected to a WhatsApp group link and was automatically added to the group, called ‘13 Goldman Sach Stock pull-up.’

“The group had a total of 164 members and one, Ashley, was the group admin. Ashley then sent a message claiming that he was an assistant of director Sunil Kaul of Goldman Sachs and convinced the complainant to invest in the stock market for more profits,” said a police officer.

As per Ashley’s direction, the complainant started investing in different shares through their company with an assurance that would give him good returns. Ashley used to send information about trading in the stock market through chats to the complainant. The complainant tried to cross-check information about some of the stocks given in the group on the stock market and found it correct, started trusting the group, and invested ₹6.27 crore from January 7 to March this year, said a police officer.

“However, when he started insisting on transferring the profits to his bank account, Ashley said he needed to talk with the finance manager and later they stopped responding to his calls and messages,” added the officer.

The complainant then approached the Cyber police station and the case was registered on March 30. During investigation, police found that the money was transferred to a total of 159 bank accounts. “The police managed to freeze an amount of ₹1.40 crore lying in the accounts and an additional amount of ₹80 lakh found to be transferred in Chavan’s bank account,” said deputy commissioner of police Datta Nalawade of the crime branch.

A police team learned that both were arrested by Pune police in a similar cyber fraud and we took a production warrant from court and took their custody from Pune on Thursday. The duo was brought to Mumbai and produced in the court and remanded in police custody till April 6.