Bhubaneswar: Odisha Police arrested a cyber criminal from Balasore for defrauding several individuals of Rs 16 lakh by promising high returns on investments through a software application, a senior police official said on Monday. The accused, identified as Partha Sarathi Das (64), is a resident of Chandipur in Balasore district. He was arrested in connection with a case (62/25) registered at the Cyber Crime and Economic Offence Police Station, Cuttack, based on a complaint lodged by Mirza Adil Beg (45) of Dargha Bazar area of Cuttack on August 28.

Beg, in his complaint, alleged that for the last two months, a mobile application named ‘Huge App’ had been operating in the app market. The office of Huge App was located in front of a school at Badambadi, LIC Colony. The accused Partha Sarathi Das was identified as the promoter of this office.

The complainant further said about 200 persons from his locality had registered themselves on this app by depositing a registration amount of Rs 16,500 each, which collectively amounted to a fraud of about Rs 16 lakh. The company assured the investors good returns on giving five-star reviews of the videos on the app and commission on adding more members to the app.

Initially, some persons received good amounts as returns, and upon their persuasion, others also joined the scheme. On August 15, the members were supposed to receive their money, but they were informed that they had to deposit an additional Rs 4,950 towards Annual Maintenance Charges.

Accordingly, many people also deposited the amount through the app. However, on August 19, the app suddenly stopped functioning. Despite repeated efforts, no results were obtained, and later it was discovered that the app had cheated many people.

As a result, several poor residents of Cuttack lost their hard-earned money to this fraud. Based on the data provided by banks and the telecom authority, the team of Cyber Police Station, Cuttack UPD, traced the accused Das, who was arrested by the police from Balasore. A senior police official said the Cuttack police will approach the court seeking its permission to take Das on remand for further probe into the matter.