Gurugram: Fake stock trading call centre busted; 13 held
Darpan News Desk IANS, 01 Mar, 2023 12:27 PM
Gurugram, March 1 (IANS) The Cybercrime Branch of the Gurugram Police on Wednesday busted a fake stock trading call centre and arrested 13 people including two foreign nationals in this connection.
A police officer said that the fake call centre was involved in duping a man of Rs 1.6 crore by luring him to invest in the stock market, cryptocurrency, and international share market, the police said.
The complainant came in touch with the fraudsters through advertisements and pop-ups on Facebook that promised hefty returns by investing in the stock market, the police said.
The police have arrested 13 people including two from Uzbekistan and Latvia. The foreign nationals have been identified as Konstantins FIlipous -- a resident of Latvia,and Albert Saribekyan a.k.a. Peter -- a resident of Uzbekistan.
The arrested also include Gaurav Verma a.k.a. Prashant Goel, Melbin Mejan, Rakesh S. Nair a.k.a. Cameron Willson, Anvin Mathew a.k.a. Adam John, Rohinth Hari Charkravarthy a.k.a. Rajkumar, Deepanshu Verma a.k.a. Deepak Malhotra, among others.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Priyanshu Diwan said, the accused used to lure victims by putting advertisements/pop ups on Facebook, Instagram and social networking sites about getting huge returns by investing in the stock market.
These fraudsters then used to scam the victims by making them invest in fake trading websites -- Lexa Trade and Grow Line in the name of investing in the Stock Market, Crypto Currency and International Share Market by putting advertisements/ pop-ups on Facebook, Instagram and social networking sites, he said.
"These fraudsters used to make virtual accounts of victims on these websites and asked for an amount to invest. Once the victims invested some amount through them, they initially used to return some amount back as profit to gain the confidence of the victims. Later, the accused would ask them to invest bigger amounts for more profit which they never returned. Eventually, they would stop replying, and then blocked their numbers," the ACP said.
Police have taken some accused on remand to recover the amount of Rs 1.6 crore. Efforts are being made to identify other victims who have been defrauded by these scamsters, he added.
Both -- Mandeep, alias Manna Tuffan, and Manpreet, alias Mani Rayia -- were allegedly involved in the murder of gangster Ranbir Singh, alias Rana Kandowalia. Kandowalia, who was facing dozens of cases of murder and attempt to murder, was gunned down outside a private hospital in Amritsar in August last year. The Bhagwanpuria group had taken the responsibility for the murder.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah had ordered a CBI probe into the death of Phogat. The move came after Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant recommended a CBI probe into the case as per demand of Phogat's daughter and people of Haryana.
The two-time chief minister of Punjab had fought the assembly elections in the state earlier this year in alliance with the BJP as well as Akali Dal (Sanyukt). His party - Punjab Lok Congress - though had failed to get even a single seat during the assembly elections.
During deliberations, the Chief Minister envisaged opportunities for mutual collaboration in business and solutions. He said that the alliance could provide on-field handholding to Punjab farmers in best practices of crop management.
Balkaur Singh, whose son was shot dead in daylight on May 29 close to his Moosa village in Punjab on May 28, had complained of uneasiness on Thursday night following which he was admitted to a private hospital in Patiala from where he was shifted to the PGIMER here.
Majithia told the media here that this was also necessary because the AAP government had neither made the FIR registered in this case public even after 24 hours, nor taken any action against any BJP leader or middlemen involved.
