Bhubaneswar, Feb 8 (IANS) The Odisha Commissionerate Police has arrested a man from West Bengal in connection with an investment fraud case in which a Bhubaneswar resident was allegedly duped of more than Rs 50 lakh through online trading, a senior official said on Sunday.
The accused was identified as Arabinda Paul (46) of Mongra in Hooghly district of West Bengal.
Police claimed that Paul, an MBA graduate, is the primary beneficiary of the fraud amount.
Police sources claimed the accused also involved several other cases of cyber fraud registered in other parts of the country.
The accused was arrested in connection with a case registered at the Cyber Crime and Economic Offence Police Station on the basis of a written complaint lodged by one Bhagirathi Mohanta, 68, a resident of Tamando in Bhubaneswar.
In his complaint, Mohanta, a retired private company employee, alleged that the accused fraudsters contacted him through WhatsApp groups and lured him into investing in online trading by promising high returns.
As per the complaint, he received an invitation from a WhatsApp group named SMC SIT III WII Group and joined the group on October 8, 2024.
As advised by one of the accused fraudsters, Assistant and Group Coordinator Kriti Gupta, Mohanta opened a trading account with SMC Capital Customer Care Unit.
Meanwhile, the complainant, following the instructions of the service manager, later deposited his hard-earned money to the tune of Rs 50.16 lakh into various bank accounts shared by the fraudsters.
Police sources said that the accused falsely told the victim that the bank accounts belonged to genuine companies.
However, during the investigation, the investigating officers found that the account numbers provided by the accused fraudsters did not belong to any big companies.
Instead, the bank accounts were operated by cyber fraudsters, who used them to conduct transactions worth lakhs of rupees per day.
The complainant had deposited to the tune of around Rs 1 lakh into the bank account of the accused Paul.
–IANS
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