Multi-crore investment fraud: Hyderabad Cops to grill seven accused

Hyderabad police got custody of seven of the nine persons who were remanded after their arrest in the multi-crore investment fraud

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad police got custody of seven of the nine persons who were remanded after their arrest in the multi-crore investment fraud on Wednesday.

Hyderabad Police Commissioner, CV Anand said the ten persons who were arrested were involved in a multi-crore fraud. In two foreign exchange companies, an amount of Rs. 903 crore was transferred while it was estimated the fraud could run into thousands of crores where in lakhs of people were duped. One person Sahil Bajaj had obtained bail from the court.

“The court granted custody of seven persons. We will question them to find how they managed to obtain so many bank accounts from individuals and sources of payment,” said an official of Hyderabad Cybercrime.

Officials said the kingpin of the racket is based in China and through appropriate channels and evidence, they will get him with the help of Central Bureau of India. The police suspect several other persons from across the country were in touch with the arrested Chinese man Lec alias Zhongjun and Taiwan national – Chu Chun-Yu and helped in their operations. The police are analyzing the gadgets seized from the arrested persons.

Sahil Bajaj alone is suspected to have helped in transactions worth Rs. 400 crores through the foreign exchange firms. The job was done in coordination with Navneet Kaushik of Ranjan Money Corp and KDS Forex Private Limited.

So far investigations revealed the call centers through which people are duped on pretext of huge profits on their investments were operated from Cambodia and other foreign countries. “To lure the victims, the fraudsters initially give good profits on small investments and once huge amount is transferred towards investment, they block the number of the investor in their systems,” said an official of Hyderabad cybercrimes. The police suspect that few persons familiar with Indian languages were working from Cambodia.

Meanwhile, the police will be writing to the banks seeking information about the procedure and scrutiny done by them before opening the bank accounts – both virtual and regular – used by the fraudsters.

ED teams seeks case details

The Enforcement Directorate enquired with the Hyderabad Police about the multi-crore investment fraud. A team from the ED met the officials of the Hyderabad cybercrime station. The officials explained to them about the fraud and how it was being executed.

The ED officials were keen on understanding the channeling of the money earned by duping people, an official source said. Informed sources said the official of central intelligence agencies also obtained information from the Hyderabad Police about the fraud.