5 Booked For ₹21.75 Lakh Crypto Investment Fraud In Pune's Saswad

Pune: A woman from Satara district was allegedly cheated of ₹21.75 lakh after being lured into investing in a pre-launch cryptocurrency scheme that promised high returns. The Saswad Police have registered a case of cheating and criminal breach of trust against five accused.

The complainant, Harshada Amol Murhe, a resident of Shirwal in Satara district, alleged that the accused persuaded her and her family to invest in Trillionaire Company's TLC 2.0 pre-launch crypto coin, claiming investors would receive a 40 per cent bonus in coins, a monthly return of four to five per cent, and profits ranging from double to five times the investment.

According to police, the accused gained the family's confidence and collected a total of ₹21,75,900 through RTGS and online transfers into the bank accounts of two of the accused, Anita Prakash Jagtap and Kalika Dnyaneshwar Shinde, on different occasions.

To build trust, the accused initially returned a small portion of the investment. However, they later allegedly failed to repay either the principal amount or the promised returns. When approached for repayment, they reportedly cited a decline in the crypto market and refused to return the money.

The complainant has also alleged that the accused used similar promises of lucrative returns to lure other investors into the scheme.

A case has been registered against Shubham Prakash Jagtap, Santosh Katke, Sanket Inamke, Anita Prakash Jagtap (all residents of Saswad), and Kalika Dnyaneshwar Shinde (a resident of Mumbai).