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Assam Cabinet decides to hand over all 32 cases of online trading scam to CBI
The scam had come to notice last month after one person named Dipankar Barman went missing after collecting an estimated amount of ₹7,000 crores from investors
The Assam Cabinet on Friday decided to hand over all 32 cases of online trading scam that have been registered across the state this month to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
“The Cabinet decided that all 32 cases registered in past few days of fraudulent transactions in the name of stock trading that has led to many people losing their money to illegal operators, who used to spend those sums on themselves, to the CBI,” chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
Sarma said he had told Union home minister Amit Shah about the scam during a meeting with him in Delhi earlier this week, and the latter also suggested that the cases be given to CBI.
“The process of handing over the cases to the central agency will take around one month. Till that time, the Assam police will continue their investigations. We hope the CBI will take charge of the cases soon. It was also decided by the Cabinet that more such cases, if detected in future, will also be handed over to the central agency,” said Sarma.
The entire scam, which involved different persons operating individually across Assam by promising huge returns on money invested in online trading of stocks, had come to notice last month after one person named Dipankar Barman went missing after collecting an estimated amount of ₹7,000 crores from investors. Police are yet to trace him.
Complaints by investors in that case and several other cases led the police to hand over the investigation to CID, which formed a special task force (STF) and registered 32 cases and arrested at least 60 people in the past two weeks. It is estimated that these accused have duped people of several thousand crore rupees.
One of the prominent arrests was of a 22-year-old named Bishal Phukan in Dibrugarh who had allegedly collected large sums from doctors, actors, singers and others and used them to splurge on himself and those close to him.
Phukan, who is in police custody now, had allegedly spent several crore rupees on a wedding at Rajasthan, expensive gifts including luxury vehicles and foreign trips of an actor-choreographer-social media influencer, Sumi Bora, who he addressed as sister.
Borah, who is believed to have used her influence to lure investors, and her photographer husband Tarkik Bora, had gone missing following Phukan’s arrest. They were nabbed by the police on Thursday after a 10-day manhunt. They are in police custody now.
