Cyber Fraud: Chhattisgarh doctor duped of ₹ 87 Lakh on pretext of share trading, accused arrested

Raipur: The Chhattisgarh police's cyber wing has arrested the director of a "fake" stock market advisory company for allegedly duping a doctor in Raigarh district of ₹ 87 lakh, officials said on Wednesday.

The accused, identified as Mohsin N, a native of Kerala, was arrested from Bengaluru and brought to Raipur on Tuesday, they said. 

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He allegedly cheated the victim, claiming his company Creative Technology worked as a financial analyst for a Singapore-based financial firm which also has a branch in India and lured him to invest in the online share market promising high returns, they said.

The fraud came to light when the doctor, working with a private hospital in Raigarh, lodged a complaint at the cyber police station in Nava Raipur in October last year, the cyber police station house officer, Nisith Agrawal, told PTI.

"The accused befriended the victim on WhatsApp and promised that if he would invest money through his company, he would get returns more than the mutual funds. The accused subsequently shared an online link and asked the victim to open a trading account through it. The victim got convinced and did so," he said.

However, the victim later realised that he was being duped and contacted the police, following which a case of cyber fraud of ₹ 87 lakh was lodged last year against unidentified persons under section 420 (forgery) of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the Information Technology Act 2000, Mr Agrawal said.

A police team was constituted and based on evidence collected during cyber analysis in the case, the team was sent to neighbouring Maharashtra and Karnataka for further investigation, he said.

The investigation revealed that the accused's company and several other similar firms were floated for duping people online, the official said.

According to information accessed from the Registrar of Companies (ROC), the Ministry of Home Affairs had also directed the ROC to take action against these firms in the past, he said.

"During questioning, Mohsin told the police that he and his friends along with some foreign nationals had created the Creative Technology company and other firms," the official said, adding that efforts are on to trace his other associates.

The cyber police have asked banks to freeze the accounts which were used for the fraud, he said.

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