Howrah bizman on the run, brothers operated online racket, say Kolkata police
Police said the operation was being run through a mobile phone app. It is suspected that victims of the racket were advised to invest in cryptocurrency.
Kolkata: Howrah-based businessman Shailesh Pandey and his brothers, Arvind and Rohit, were allegedly running an online racket that lured people from Bengal and other states to take lessons in investments that promised high returns, officers involved in the probe said on Tuesday.
The operation was being run through a mobile phone app. It is suspected that victims of the racket were advised to invest in cryptocurrency.
It is also suspected that those who enrolled for the various lessons on investment had to pay fees equivalent to 100 and 150 US dollars but were offered commission for roping in more investors, an investigating officer, who did not want to be identified, said.
Acting on a complaint from Canara Bank that the accused opened two accounts at the Narendrapur branch in South 24 Parganas district by furnishing false information, officers from the detective department of the Kolkata Police seized around ₹8 crore in cash on October 15 and later traced online bank transactions amounting to more than ₹130 crore. Of this, ₹22 crore was lying in the two Canara Bank accounts that have been frozen.
“Transaction records indicate that money deposited in these two accounts was transferred to three accounts in other banks and from where the deposits were siphoned through nine more accounts in various banks,” said an officer.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has contacted the Kolkata police and sought records relating to the case, the officer added.
Scrutiny of security camera footage showed that Shailesh Pandey got into a car with his mother and left Clubtown Riverdale on October 15 before the first raid was conducted. He and his brothers remained untraceable till Tuesday evening.
In its October 14 complaint, Canara Bank authorities said it detected huge online transactions in two accounts at their Nardendrapur branch. These were opened in the name of Pandey’s companies by using fake documents.
