The Ernakulam Rural Crime Branch arrested a man accused of cheating a woman from Aluva to the tune of ₹1.25 crore by promising huge profits by way of online trading.
The arrested is Vijay Sonkhar, 27, of Ahmedabad in Gujarat. The woman was allegedly ensnared by him through social media by promising her huge profits on investments. Falling for this, she initially made a relatively small investment, and he promptly paid her return to win her confidence.
Subsequently, the woman kept making more investments by transferring bigger amounts to various bank accounts, and she was shown a fictitious online page showing her rising returns on investments. In total, she invested ₹1.25 crore over a period.
Later, when she tried to withdraw the money, he simply disappeared from social media, and his contact number also went dead. Subsequently, the woman lodged a complaint with District Police Chief (Ernakulam Rural) Vaibhav Saxena who handed over the probe to the Crime Branch. A special team was also formed.
The team tracked down an address in Ahmedabad, and the accused was nabbed after days-long surveillance in disguise. He was found to be running a fake trading company complete with a Goods and Service Tax licence and a current account in a nationalised bank. Transactions worth crores of rupees were found to have taken place through his account, the police said.
“We have been constantly issuing advisories against falling for the lure of exorbitant profits or returns by such online trading rackets. Yet, we keep getting a lot of complaints. The people should remain vigilant against such frauds,” said Mr. Saxena.
A team led by DySP T.M. Varghese, sub inspectors A.K. Santhosh Kumar and T.K. Varghese, and assistant sub inspector V.N. Sijo made the arrest.