How Ludhiana-based gang dupe people by making them invest in fraudulent ‘V-trade’ app
According to the police, they recovered Rs 40.62 lakh in cash, Rs 30.80 lakh in bank accounts, and 135 cheques worth Rs 3.01 crore, from the accused.
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Mandeep Singh Sidhu, Commissioner, Ludhiana police, said Anil Jain, 40, a resident of the Bawa Colony, was the mastermind of the gang (Express) The Ludhiana city police recently busted a gang allegedly involved in duping people by making them invest in a fraudulent app called V-Trade.
According to the police, they recovered Rs 40.62 lakh in cash, Rs 30.80 lakh in bank accounts, and 135 cheques worth Rs 3.01 crore, from the accused. The police said they also seized five laptops, six desktops, seven phones, documents of several properties, 62 gold and diamond ornaments, luxury vehicles, including a Mercedes and a Ciaz, and two cash counting machines from them.
Who was involved?
Mandeep Singh Sidhu, Commissioner, Ludhiana police, said Anil Jain, 40, a resident of the Bawa Colony, was the mastermind of the gang. Another accused Karamjit Kaur, 31, of Ahmedgarh used to call “customers” to make them download the app and gave fake “tips for investment”, said Sidhu.
Their accomplice Sunny Kumar, 37, of Haibowal used to collect cash from the targets. Two other gang members—Jatin Jain (brother of mastermind Anil Jain) and Gagandeep Singh of Daad village—focussed on finding new targets.
What was their modus operandi?
CP Sidhu said the accused enticed the victims to invest in the app promising huge and quick profits. They used to send them the links of their app on WhatsApp and provide an ID and password.
“Then they asked for two cheques from each customer before providing them with an ID and password for using the app. The cash was then received from the victim and equivalent dummy figures were shown in their account in the app whereas in reality no trading was done. The victim was made to believe that he was earning good returns by trading through the app,” said Sidhu.
“When the customer would demand his returns, his ID and password were changed and later the customer was blackmailed into paying more saying their cheques would be used against them otherwise. The accused duped the complainant of Rs 15 lakhs who is just one of many such victims,” he added.
The police said they also suspect that many victims invested their unaccounted/black money and hence did not come forward to file a complaint.
What did the police probe find?
Sidhu said their probe has found that the app was registered under the ‘entertainment’ category on the app store. He added when they sought information regarding the app from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), they found it had no registration with the market regulator. “The transactions shown to customers on the app were verified from the exchanges and they were found to be fraudulent. Most payments from the victims were taken in cash,” he added.
The police said the Ludhiana Stock Exchange also confirmed that the app, the accused, and those who invested money in it were never registered with them.
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