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Uttarakhand: ONGC staff cheated of ₹7.39 cr in fake WhatsApp investment scheme,
General manager of ONGC in Tripura, Sanjeev Kumar Arya from Dehradun lost money in an online investment fraud case
Dehradun: A general manager of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) in Uttarakhand was cheated of ₹7.39 crore by cyber fraudsters on the pretext of investing in the share market, police said.
Based on a complaint lodged by Sanjeev Kumar Arya, a resident of Ajabpur Khurd in Dehradun, an FIR was registered at the Cyber Police Station on Saturday evening.
The general manager of ONGC at Tripura’s Agartala allegedly received a WhatsApp link to join a group — M2 Wealth Secrets Exchange Group — on June 15. “The group had three admins and 173 members. One of the admins, Mukesh Kumar, began sharing stock investment tips that initially appeared genuine,” Arya said.
Mukesh reportedly shared a link to an app called Cantillion in the WhatsApp group on July 25, and Arya’s number was added to another WhatsApp group called Disciple Team, which had seven members and an admin. “Members were encouraged to invest in Initial Public Offering (IPO) shares. I got greedy and decided to invest. I deposited money in the bank accounts shared in the group,” he said.
Arya allegedly transferred ₹7.39 crore into 15 different bank accounts. “I was made to believe my profits would multiply several times. However, when I requested to withdraw ₹5 crore, I was asked to first pay ₹3 crore as withdrawal tax. I was denied withdrawal, and later realised I had been cheated. The investment certificates provided to me were fake,” Arya said.
Station house officer (SHO) Tribhwan Singh Rotela said that an FIR was registered under Sections 66-D (cheating by personation using computer resources) of the IT Act, 318(4) (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and investigation is underway.
