Bhubaneswar: The Crime Branch of Police have busted an inter-state cyber fraud and arrested 24 members of the gang from different States including Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Rajasthan.
The arrest was made while investigating a cyber fraud case registered at Cyber Police Station, Cuttack in August this year, informed Vinaytosh Misra, ADG of Police, crime branch.
The complainant, a senior executive of a private company, was automatically added in a Whatsapp group in July and the group admin persuaded him to do investment. Accordingly, the complainant invested Rs 6.28 crore in share market, he said.
“Immediately after his investment, the base price of the share suddenly increased and his total fund value rose to Rs 25 crore. When the complainant wanted to withdraw money, the group admin allowed him to withdraw Rs 23 crore,” Misra said.
However, when he attempted to withdraw his funds, he was promptly removed from the Whatsapp group by the admin, and the mobile app used for transactions was deactivated, stated the ADG.
During investigation, the crime branch officials found that the complainant’s money had been transferred to 100 different bank accounts.
Mishra said the accounts have been freezed with a credit balance of Rs 16.85 lakh, besides return of Rs 6.80 lakh to the complainant’s account.
The police officials identified a total of 24 accused persons in the states like Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Rajasthan. The crime branch teams visited the states and apprehended nine accused persons from Tamil Nadu, eight from Gujarat and seven from Rajasthan, he informed.
The crime branch is continuing its further investigation into the cyber fraud case.