Hyderabad: Four held in investment fraud

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad cybercrime police arrested four persons from Delhi and Rajasthan who were involved in deceiving innocent people under the guise of investment. They provided bank accounts to cyber fraudsters to defraud people, resulting in a total loss of Rs 1.43 crore in Hyderabad.

The arrested persons were Krishan Dhaka and Manoj Kumar from Barmer district, Rajasthan; Ashutosh Raj and Munish Bansal from Delhi. The police seized chequebooks, debit cards, passbooks, UPI scanners, nine mobile phones, a laptop, and SIM cards from them.

According to the complaint, the victim from Hyderabad stated that the cyber fraudsters initially contacted him via WhatsApp, claiming to represent Pantheon Venture Company. They purported to be recruiting individuals for trading purposes and subsequently created a trading account for him. Additionally, they added him to a WhatsApp group named "Aditya Stock Sharing VIP." The victim was instructed to download an application called PT-VC from the Google Play Store. He was further directed to purchase IPO stocks expected to be listed. Subsequently, he deposited funds into the accounts provided by the fraudsters and was advised to hold onto the stocks for a period of 30 days to earn good profits. To date, the complainant has invested a total of Rs 1,08,15,047 across various bank accounts.

Following the complaint, cybercrime police registered a case U/s 66(C), (D) IT Act, and Sec 419,420 IPC and investigated it. Additionally, similar cases have been registered at various police stations across Telangana.

According to the police, Ashutosh, a former employee of a Bank, assisted Krishan and Manoj in opening fake current bank accounts in different banks through his contacts with bank officials. Munish, along with his associates Gourav Chowdary and Giridhar, also opened fake current bank accounts in various banks. They collaborated with cyber fraudsters and provided them with numerous fake bank accounts. These fraudsters are based in foreign countries and deceive people by encouraging them to invest funds in an international investment in Aditya Stock Sharing VIP.

The police stated that the cyber fraudsters employed a tactic of initially providing smaller amounts as profits to gain the trust of the victims. Subsequently, they pressured the victims to invest larger sums of money. Once the victims complied with these requests, the fraudsters ceased communication with them altogether.

The accused persons sold those bank accounts on a commission basis to the absconding prime accused who are in other countries.

Initially, an amount was transferred into one beneficiary bank account. Upon technical analysis of this bank account, authorities identified an additional 24 fake shell company bank accounts. A total of Rs 22.24 crore was credited or defrauded across these accounts.

Subsequently, a total of 171 cases were registered across the country related to these fraudulent activities. Of these cases, 11 were registered in Telangana, including four in Hyderabad with a defrauded amount of Rs 1.43 crore, four in Cyberabad, one in Rachakonda, and two cases in other districts of Telangana.