15 arrested by Odisha police in cyber fraud case

Bhubaneswar: The Cyber Crime Unit of Odisha Crime Branch on Wednesday arrested 15 cyber criminals involved in duping gullible persons on the pretext of high returns against investments in cryptocurrency, stocks and IPO shares, said a senior official of Odisha Police.

“We have arrested 15 people of the gang, which is involved in fraud in different states of India. While the two masterminds belong to New Delhi, the other 13 accused are from Odisha,” the Additional DGP of the Crime Branch in Bhubaneswar, Arun Bothra, said.

The Crime Branch sleuths have arrested the two masterminds, Tushar Sharma and Bhavesh Thakur, from Delhi, who were running a cyber criminal racket. The accused persons, identified as Ranjit Kumar Bal of Kendrapara, Dillip Kumar Lenka of Balasore, Sunil Prasad of Ganjam and Bishikesan Padhy alias Siba from Rayagada, in connivance with the mastermind duo, used to get current accounts opened in different banks to facilitate the transfer of funds.

Similarly, Kalandi Singh and Sudhansu Bhusan Pattanaik from Khurda, Udaybhanu Ghadei of Bhubaneswar, Jiten Barad of Nayagarh, Bharat Bhusan Chakra of Jagatsinghpur, Bikash Chandra Rout and Uttam Kumar Sahu of Bhadrak, Satya Ranjan Sahoo from Balasore and Amit Kumar Rout of Ganjam had opened bank accounts in their own names and utilised it for transferring the fraudulently obtained money.

The accused fraudsters have been arrested in connection with a case based on a complaint lodged by a victim from Bhubaneswar who alleged that some individuals, posing as staff at a securities company, representatives of Blackstone Investment Group, involved in online trading, along with some others, defrauded him to the tune of more than Rs 3 crore. The Crime Branch sources said the victim received a message on Facebook on March 29 inviting him to join a WhatsApp group focused on institutional trading with discounts on shares and promising high returns on investments.

Persuaded by the cyber fraudsters, the victim transferred a total of Rs 3.04 crore from five of his accounts to various accounts specified by cyber criminals until June 11, 2024. Despite his attempts, he was unable to withdraw any funds. “When he requested withdrawal, he was asked to pay 20 per cent management fee on his profits, which they claimed had exceeded 300 per cent. His requests went unanswered and the persons as well as the accounts went unreachable, following which he realised that he had fallen victim to a meticulously planned conspiracy and online fraud by this group and their associates,” added the official.

The police, during the investigation, found that the cyber criminals used to identify their targets through social media and invited them to join WhatsApp or Telegram groups for discussions on trading and investment.

Subsequently, the victims were enticed into opening fake trading accounts with the promise of high returns. Although the victims could see that their money was apparently growing in the fake trading platform, they were prevented from making any withdrawals. When they attempted to withdraw, more money was extorted under the guise of processing fees and other charges.