5 arrested as Police busts cyber fraud rackets

New Delhi: The Delhi Police has busted two online investment rackets and arrested five men who allegedly made victims install fake applications on the promise to make high returns, an official said on Friday.

The rackets operated through fake groups and bogus trading applications, cheating victims of crores of rupees, they said, adding that a money trail of around Rs 24 crore has been unearthed so far.

In the first case, the complainant was allegedly cheated of Rs 31.45 lakh after being lured into a group and persuaded to install a fraudulent investment application named ‘Cventura’, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Aditya Gautam said.

The victim was induced to transfer money into six different bank accounts on the promise of high returns. However, after he demanded profits, the group disappeared and the application became non-functional, they said.

A case was registered and during the probe, the police found out that the amount cheated was routed through multiple mule bank accounts to layer and siphon off the funds. Based on technical surveillance and bank account analysis, raids were conducted in Ludhiana and Khanna in Punjab, leading to the arrest of Rajiv (33) from Rupnagar and Monu Kumar (27) from Ludhiana.

Rajiv was found to be a mule account holder, with around Rs 6.45 lakh from the case credited to his account. Police said transactions exceeding Rs 1 crore were detected in his account before it was deactivated.

Monu Kumar allegedly acted as a facilitator, luring people to open bank accounts and selling them to cyber fraudsters in return for commission, Gautam added.

In the second case, the complainant joined a group named ‘VIP 10 Stock Sharing Group’ in July and was induced to invest through another fake application called ‘Verger’, the police said. The victim transferred Rs 47.15 lakh through multiple transactions into nine different bank accounts before the group and application were abruptly shut down, they said.