Indore Online Fraud: Cyber Law & MBA Students Among 9 Held From UP For Duping Retired GM Of Mumbai Company Of ₹1.4 Crore; Promised Him 490% Returns On Stocks

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): The State Cyber Cell arrested nine members of a gang from Uttar Pradesh for duping a retired general manager of a renowned company based in Mumbai of Rs 1.39 crore. The accused, including students of law, cyber law, civil engineering, and business administration, as well as the account holder who received the fraudulent money, were arrested in connection with the same, and further investigations are underway.

GM lured by social media ads claiming huge returns

According to SP (cyber cell), the victim, a resident of Indore, came across a stock trading advertisement on a social media platform and joined a group run by the gang. He was, then, lured with false promises of 490% profit through institutional stock trading, OTC (over-the-counter) trading, IPO trades and block trading. Believing these claims, the retired officer transferred Rs 1.39 crore to a bank account provided by the conmen within a month.

Investigations revealed that the gang was connected to Chinese groups through social media platforms. After keeping their commission, the accused transferred the money into Chinese crypto accounts. The funds were first sent to the bank account of Vijay Shankar Dwivedi of Pune, who presently lives in Lucknow, withdrew the amount through ATMs and converted it into cryptocurrency for the Chinese handlers. Information was received that Dwivedi handed over his account details, chequebook, and ATM card to the gang in return for an Rs 10,000 commission per transaction.

A special team led by Inspector Anju Patel traced Dwivedi to Lucknow, where he found that the other eight accused were already in judicial custody in connection with a cybercrime case. They were brought to the city on production warrants. The arrested were identified as Vijay Shankar Dwivedi; Satyam Tiwari from Lucknow (pursuing a PG diploma in cyber law); Diwakar Vikram Singh of Basti district (BSc student); Vinod Kumar of Gonda (BSc student); Krish Shukla of Lucknow (BSc student); Mohamad Shah of Barabanki (BTech civil engineering student); Saksham Tiwari of Raebareli (CS aspirant); Laik Ahmad of Lucknow; and Manish Jaiswal of Lucknow.

According to the officer, the gang used the bank accounts of needy individuals for fraudulent transactions. Money deposited was withdrawn via cheques or ATMs, with a portion kept as commission before the rest was transferred to Chinese wallets in cryptocurrency.

A case has been registered under relevant sections of the BNS and the IT Act. The Indore Cyber Cell has credited the success of this operation to the leadership of the Superintendent of Police, Cyber Cell, and the dedicated efforts of Inspector Anju Patel, Sub-Inspector Ramprakash Bajpai, and constables Ramesh Bhide and Gajendra Singh Rathore.