Ghaziabad: Three arrested for cheating man of ₹70 lakh in online share trading scam

The police said that while Singh was surfing online for investment schemes in share trading, he came across the gang members who added him to two different WhatsApp groups through links

The Ghaziabad police on Wednesday arrested three men who allegedly cheated a resident of Raj Nagar Extension for ₹70 lakh in an online share trading scam, senior police officers said, adding that they have come to know that the gang is also involved in about 32 cases of fraud registered in different cities across the country.

The three suspects in police custody. The officials said the suspects would get 1% of the money they accumulated by duping people. Police have recovered about ₹29.57 lakh of the money lost by Singh. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

The police identified the suspects as Ravi Sharma, 40, Sushil Sharma, 38 and Bhanu Raghav, 38, and said they were arrested late Tuesday night from Masuri in Ghaziabad.

The police said the victim, Kushal Pal Singh, was allegedly duped of about ₹70 lakh between March 13 and April 3 this year. Singh approached the police on April 23 and got an FIR registered at Nandgram police station.

“The matter was investigated by the cyber cell. We traced different linked accounts to which the Singh’s money was transferred, and we came across one account to which ₹50,000 was transferred. We scanned the details of that account and found that it had about ₹6.5 crore. This money, we believe, came from 32 different cases of fraud reported from 10 different states. We are getting details of all these cases,” said Sacchidanand, additional deputy commissioner of police (crime).

The police said that while Singh was surfing online for investment schemes in share trading, he came across the gang members who added him to two different WhatsApp groups through links.

“Then, they also made him invest regularly through two different apps and his money was transferred to 10 different accounts. This app would show that investment was increasing, but, he could not withdraw the money. In this manner, ₹70 lakh was taken away from Singh. The gang also opened current accounts in the name of bogus companies and details of these accounts were shared with a fraudster in a foreign country. That person would access these accounts through an OTP forwarder app,” Sacchidanand said.

The officials said the suspects would get 1% of the money they accumulated by duping people. They have recovered about ₹29.57 lakh of the money lost by Singh.

The police said that the gang also has several more members and investigation is underway to nab more suspects.