Punjab Police arrests two members of inter-state cyber fraud gang
Chandigarh, The cyber crime division of the Punjab Police has busted an inter-state gang involved in investment fraud and arrested two persons, a senior official said on Tuesday.
He said Varun Kumar was arrested from Panchkula in Haryana and Sahil Sethi from Abohar in Punjab.
According to Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav, the gang used to lure people through Telegram and WhatsApp groups by offering high profits in 'stock market investments'.
The fraudsters used to convince the victims to install a fake K application, which projected huge returns on their invested amount. With the application showing fake profits, the victims continued to 'invest' money by transferring them to different bank accounts as directed by the fraudsters.
DGP Yadav said the gang's kingpins used to give commission to the arrested accused based on the amounts being transferred into the bank accounts.
"Preliminary investigation has revealed that the arrested accused were involved in 34 other cyber fraud complaints filed across 14 states, with the total scam amount exceeding ₹8 crore," Yadav said, adding that a probe is on to uncover the virtual mobile numbers and the broader network behind these fraudulent activities.
Sharing the details, Additional Director General of Police , Cyber Crime, V Neeraja said that a thorough investigation was carried out under the supervision of Inspector Jujhar Singh after a victim, who was duped of ₹15 lakh, filed a complaint.
The team, using multiple OSINT techniques and technical assistance from the Samanvay portal of Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, managed to establish the identity of the accused persons and eventually arrested them, the ADGP added.
She said further investigation regarding the virtual mobile numbers and the fake bank accounts, traced to Delhi and NCR region, is in progress.
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