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A gang of five cyber fraudsters duping people on the pretext of IPO returns was nabbed after raids across four states by the Delhi Police. Police said their investigation revealed connections to fraud networks based in Cambodia and the use of several mule accounts to facilitate the scam.
According to the police, the gang duped victims and laundered the cheated money through multiple mule accounts and cryptocurrency wallets.
Police said the racket came to light when a man named R Choudhary was added to a WhatsApp group where he was induced to invest in stocks with promises of high returns.
“Initially, he received small profits to build trust, but later, when he attempted to withdraw his investment of Rs 10.7 lakh, the withdrawals were blocked,” DCP (Southwest) Amit Goel said.
A case was registered on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) and a special team was constituted under Inspector Pravesh Kaushik, SHO of the Cyber Police Station, Southwest District.
Using technical surveillance and analysing the money trail, the team traced the accused by sifting through a mountain of fake SIMs and mule accounts used by them.
“The police arrested Vikram, 40, from Narwana, in Haryana’s Jind. During questioning, he disclosed the involvement of another accused, Mukul, 33, who was nabbed from Zirakpur, Punjab. Further probe led to the arrest of Akshay, 29, from Una, Himachal Pradesh; Hari Kishan Singh, 38, from Amritsar, Punjab; and the mastermind Mangu Singh, 27, from Sikar, Rajasthan,” DCP Goel said.
Mangu Singh, police said, was the brains behind the gang.
Police said he was allegedly operating Telegram groups to arrange mule accounts and launder money through cryptocurrency platforms in connivance with Cambodia-based handlers.
The cheated money was routed into mule accounts, layered across multiple accounts, and finally converted into cryptocurrency before being transferred to wallets controlled by the foreign fraudsters, with the accused in India retaining about 5% as commission, said police.
A total of 13 mobile phones, a laptop, nine cheque books, three registers containing incriminating cyber entries, and eight SIM cards were recovered.
The police traced Rs 4.25 crore in fraud money through the mule accounts and crypto wallets, and found 15 related complaints on the NCRP.
Further investigation is in progress, the police said.
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