Dehradun: Uttarakhand Special Task Force (STF) has arrested the kingpin of a gang allegedly involved in duping people by luring them of high profits in stock market through a trading app.
Investigations revealed that the accused has so far cheated people of Rs 1.4 crore in online trading fraud by attracting them through social media advertisements. He was nabbed from Delhi and a mobile phone, six cheque books and passbooks, six debit cards, 33 SIM cards of different companies, fake seals and QR scanners were recovered from him.
A probe into the matter was initiated on the basis of a complaint lodged by a Nainital resident on June 18. The victim complained that he had been added to a WhatsApp group by luring high profits through stock investment and was asked to download a trading app. After downloading the app, initially an amount of about Rs 90 lakh was fraudulently deposited in his account but eventually he lost his entire money.
During the investigations, cyber crime police approached the concerned banks and service provider companies Meta and Google to get information about the details of bank accounts, mobile numbers, Gmail accounts and WhatsApp numbers used by the cyber gang members. The data revealed that the cyber criminals used SIM cards and bank accounts issued in the names of other persons.
STF investigation revealed that under the guise of running a registered firm named Bhavatika Health Care Private Limited, the kingpin was involved in fraudulent online trading activities.
Investigators said the accused used to add people to WhatsApp groups through links and made them download a trading app named Eltas Fund by promising them a three-time profit in stocks and IPOs. The gang gained confidence of the investors by fraudulently displaying huge profits on their app dashboards.
The money obtained by duping people used to be deposited in different bank accounts and withdrawn through ATM. The accused used fake SIMs and bank accounts for this, officials said.
During interrogation, the accused told that he has opened bank accounts in the names of others that are also used by his gang members in Ahmedabad. He takes Rs 40,000 to Rs 1 lakh as commission for each account along with a 10 to 20 percent commission on every fraud through cyber crime.
SSP Ayush Agarwal said a total of 11 online complaints have been filed in states including Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand against the accounts opened by the accused in the name of Bhavatika Health Care Private Limited.
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