The Uttar Pradesh Special task force regional cybercrime station in Noida has arrested one member of a gang from Madhya Pradeshfor allegedly defrauding several people of Rs 15 crores on the pretext of currency trading through demat accounts. The arrest was carried out under the instructions of the cybercrime wing headquarters in Lucknow.
The accused has been identified as 24-year-old Shoaib Mansoori who is a resident of Dewas in Madhya Pradesh, officials said. An FIR under sections 406(Punishment for criminal breach of trust), 419(Punishment for cheating by personation), 420(Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467(Forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471(Using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 66(Computer related offences) 66C(Punishment for identity theft) and 66D(Punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act was registered against the accused.
The regional cyber-crime station in Sector 36 Noida is investigating this case wherein the complainant has alleged that the accused has defrauded him of Rs 15 lakh on the pretext of currency trading via de-mat accounts.
Investigation has revealed that the accused along with his associates had defrauded several people in different states of a total of Rs 15 crore by opening around 500 demat accounts in respect of which investigation is also being carried out by the police officials concerned in those states.
According to officials, the accused along with other members would influence people luring them into currency trading and they would open demat accounts of people who showed interest. They had access to the user-id and passwords of all demat accounts. The accused would defraud their customers and transfer their money into different demat accounts. The application made it appear that their investments are growing when they actually didn’t. When the customers sought to encash the money, they would ask them to transfer more in lieu of conversion charges and GST.
According to Reeta Yadav, in charge of the cybercrime station at Sector 36, “Preliminary investigation has revealed that accused ran a company in Indore which comprised three other people. It was like a call centre which employed men and women both who were paid salaries; they would speak to the customers regarding the de-mat accounts. We have found data of 500 people who had de -mat accounts in this company.”
