Bhubaneswar: The Commissionerate Police has arrested three persons in connection with a large-scale online investment fraud involving fake trading applications, in which a man was cheated of Rs 94,62,461 lakh, police said Thursday.
The accused have been identified as Lala Basantara (21), Manas Kumar Sahu (30) and Chinmaya Sahoo (19), all residents of Debagarh district.
Acting on reliable intelligence, a special team of the Commissionerate Police, including the Cyber Crime and Economic Offences Wing (EOW), conducted raids and apprehended the accused.
According to police, the accused posed as representatives of SEBI-registered financial institutions and added the complainant to multiple WhatsApp groups, luring him with promises of high returns through stock trading, share investments and IPOs. The groups falsely assured compliance with SEBI norms to gain the victim’s trust.
The complainant was induced to invest money through two mobile trading applications named BOB Caps (BOB Capital Markets Limited, Mumbai) and Chola Pro (Cholamandalam Securities Limited, Chennai). These applications displayed fabricated trading profits to create an illusion of genuine market activity.
Believing the claims to be genuine, the complainant transferred money through UPI, NEFT and RTGS to various third-party bank accounts as directed by the accused.
When he later attempted to withdraw the amount, he was asked to pay additional charges, including a 30 per cent service fee in the name of tax and processing charges. Despite making further payments, withdrawal was not allowed.
Subsequently, the applications showed the account status as abnormal and all related WhatsApp groups became inactive, raising suspicion of fraud.
The victim then lodged a complaint with the cyber police, following which the case was registered and investigation was taken up.
Police seized three mobile phones, one SBI ATM card and one UDYAM Registration Certificate from their possession.
After completion of all legal formalities, the accused were forwarded to the court. Further investigation is underway to trace other accomplices and the money trail, police added.
