Cyber Police Nab Trio Involved in Rs 2 Crore Share-Trading Scam in Pune

The Pimpri Chinchwad cyber police have made significant progress in cracking down on a major online share-trading fraud. In a recent operation, they arrested three individuals, including a real estate agent, who were involved in defrauding a director of a labour supply company of Rs 2 crore.

The victim, who remains unnamed, was added to two groups on a mobile messaging app in February by the cybercriminals. The fraudsters promised him a 15% return on his investments in the stock market if he invested through them. They provided a link to download an app that purportedly allowed the victim to monitor his profits.

Under the pretense of purchasing stocks and IPOs, the criminals convinced the victim to transfer money to various bank accounts. Within a month, the victim had transferred Rs 2 crore to 15 different bank accounts. The app showed that he had earned a profit of Rs 3 crore, which kept him from suspecting any foul play. However, the victim realized something was amiss when he was unable to withdraw his funds.

A dedicated team from the Pimpri Chinchwad cyber police, led by Senior Police Inspector Ravikiran Nale, took up the investigation. Upon receiving the complaint, the police managed to hold Rs 62 lakh of the victim's money. The investigation revealed that some of the funds had been transferred to a bank account in the name of an industry in New Mumbai.

The police team, led by Assistant Police Inspector Pravin Swami, traced the account holder, Sushil Juvatkar (42) of Nerul in New Mumbai, and arrested him. Juvatkar, who works as a real estate agent, admitted to opening a bank account in a public sector bank and using it as a mule account for his handlers based overseas.

Juvatkar also revealed the names of his accomplices, Pankaj Kapur (38) and Nischal Bareyali (27), both residents of Nerul. The police arrested them as well. It was discovered that Kapur and Bareyali had previously worked at call centers in Thailand and Myanmar, which were involved in cybercrimes.

The police found that the trio was operating the mule bank account opened in the name of a company, through which transactions worth Rs 2 crore were made. During the raid, the police recovered six cellphones, three passports, two laptops, three point-of-sale (POS) machines, 24 bank account opening kits, and five debit cards.

During the investigation, the suspects revealed that they were planning to start a knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) unit soon. The police suspect that they might have intended to use this KPO to target more victims. The investigation is ongoing, and the police are questioning the trio to uncover more details about their operations.