By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: The Cyber Crime Unit of the Crime Branch arrested one SachinMadhya Pradesh for their involvement in the above mentioned digital and forwarded him on 21st Jan 2025. Out of the total Rs. 1.06 crores , 8.82 lakhs were transferred to the bank account of Likewise Cyber Crime Unit of Crime Branch has also arrested accused Sameer Ali(36), S/o Shokat Ali,3, At:Gudri Chouraha, Gali No.3, Khudiram Boss Marg, Ujjain,Madhya Pradesh and forwarded him to the court on 22ndJan 2025. has been credited to his account out of the total fraud money of was registered on the complaint of a Senior Scientist from Bhubaneswar.
He stated in the complaint that on 9th August, 2024, he received a call from an unknown mobile no. and the person on the other side claimed that he was from DHL Couriers. He told him that using his name and Aadhar number, a parcel was sent to Japan containing 5 passports, 3 credit cards, 200 gm MDMA (drugs), 4 kg cloth, one laptop and Rs.35,000/-. It has been retained by Customs sent it to Narcotics Department for registration of FIR and he to talk to Mumbai Crime Branch urgently.
Immediately after that, he received an international call about same matter. After a while, the call was shifted to a video call with a whatsapp no., which was showing as Mumbai Crime Branch.
In the video call, a person wearing police dress was seen discussing with a DCP and telling the staff to stop FIR against him as he is a Govt Officer.
He was made to believe that they have all the personal information about him. They told him not to disconnect the call till the investigation is over. They also shared names and photos of various Senior Officers who were investigated and issued NoC. They were issuing letters from CBI, RBI etc alleging to have illegal accounts. Hence, he could not be out of surveillance till the investigation is over. On 14th August the victim was cunningly managed to transfer Rs 68 lakhs to the account belonging to Satish Kumar from Chennai. Then did RTGS of Rs 8,82,000/ account of Sachin Kolan. Finally, they told him to transfer another Rs.30 lakhs and then only they can issue NOC. In this way, the fraudsters duped him of Rs 1,06,82,000/- (One Crore Six Lakhs and Eighty Two Thousand) into three banks in three transactions between 9th -14th August, 2024.
In Case No. 21/2024 complainant- a Business Man from Cuttack, reported in writing at the Cyber PS, CID, CB, Odisha alleging there in that he has always been fascinated with investing in the stock market and frequently searches various websites for investment opportunities. In February 2024, while browsing the internet for stock market investments, he came across a WhatsApp group named “Ram Investment Academy.” He became a member of this group in the same month.
The group regularly suggested stocks that were consistently in the upper circuit, but he was unable to purchase these stocks through any of his demat accounts. Enticed by their false promises, he opened a privileged account with TECHSTARS PRO. The company collected funds through third-party accounts, providing different account details daily. Despite depositing funds into these third-party accounts, the amounts appeared credited to his privileged account in the app. The stocks they recommended showed substantial profits the following day. Additionally, they encouraged him to purchase IPOs with an 80% allocation guarantee, though he never received any allocations in his demat accounts. The IPOs were offered at a discounted rate. Under these circumstances, he invested a total of Rs. 2,58,60,000/- in their privileged account between 20.03.2024 and 20.04.2024, utilizing all his family savings, including his wife’s and father’s money, in the hope of earning more profit.
As of 24.04.2024, the app showed his capital as Rs. 21,00,00,000/-. However, from that date, the group ceased operations and a specific phone number contacted him demanding a commission to withdraw his capital. But he refused to pay the commission, suspecting their integrity. Whenever he attempted to withdraw from his capital account, they consistently refused and insisted on the payment of the commission. Being suspicious about this the complainant report the matter at Cyber Crime Police Station, CID-CB, Cuttack, Odisha.
Transaction details of the credited account of stands in the name of Kathait Financial Services owned by accd. Manoj Singh Kathait of Dehradun, Uttarakhand. Rs.34,90,028/- had been transferred from this account to the Indus Ind account of Taj Traders and Collections owned by accd. Sameer Ali Indusind Bank.
Basing upon the money trail in both the cases, The Crime Branch team successfully identified the accused persons and a team led by Inspr. Geetanjali Jena proceeded to Madhya Pradesh and arrested accused a Sachin Kolan In Case No. 47/2024 ,who was the first layer account holders, wherein 8.82 lakhs amount cheated from the victim was transferred and 16 other incident reports are also there pan-India as per National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal . Previously in this case ,Crime Branch had arrested 05 other accused persons ,one from Tamilnadu, one from Hanumangarh of Rajasthan, one from Surat City of Gujarat and two from Kerala and they all still in judicial custody. Likewise in Case No. 21/2024 Inspr. Geetanjali Jena arrested accd. Sameer Ali ,brought him to Odisha who was forwarded on 22nd Jan 2025 to the Court. One more accused who was arrested earlier in this case from Kolkatta is in Judicial Custody.
