The Matunga police have arrested four alleged cyber criminals from Gujarat and Delhi for cheating several people across the country on the pretext of bogus share market schemes.
The investigation of this case first began in November 2023 when a woman, Radha Pillai, approached the police. According to her, she was added to a WhatsApp group named Stock Frontline where the admins of the group shared about money investment in share markets. By manipulating her, the fraudsters convinced her into investing over Rs50 lakh, assuring her handsome returns.
Details of case
When she asked for withdrawals of her so-called returns, they schemed her into more investments and eventually she realised the fraud. Police began with looking into all the mobile numbers used by the fraudsters to contact her, and then the bank accounts connected to it.
The first account they traced was somewhere in Surat, from where they arrested the first accused, Ashish Ghantala, 32. Ghantala's arrest led to the second accused Sanjaybhai Patel, 43. Their modus operandi was to pose as experts in the share market field, conduct online seminars and gradually convince people into making investments by assuring them hefty returns.
During the investigation, it came to light that Ghantala and Patel withdrew the scammed money from the banks and used it for illegal hawala businesses. They were sending these cash via hawala to someone in Delhi.
Tracing the individuals to Delhi, police then arrested the third and fourth accused - Kaval Malhotra (45) and Ayush Malhotra (21) - both residents of North Delhi. The cash these two received from Surat via hawala, were then converted into cryptocurrency and sent to their “big bosses” who reside in countries like Hong Kong and Dubai.
Furthermore, these four have over 50 bank accounts where they deposit the proceeds of the crime, and in these 50 bank accounts, police found transaction records of over Rs25 crore.
All the four accused are remanded in police custody till Feb 16 for further questioning.
FPJ Cyber Secure |
