Kolkata: A lower court in Kolkata on Saturday remanded Amir Khan, the prime accused in the mobile gaming app fraud case, to 14-day police custody.
On September 10, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had seized Rs 17.32 crore in cash from the Garden Reach residence of Amir Khan, who allegedly launched a mobile gaming application named E-Nuggets, which was designed for the purpose of defrauding people.
Khan was arrested from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh by a team of Kolkata Police and was brought to Kolkata in transit remand on Saturday afternoon.
Khan’s counsel argued that his client had no connection with the said mobile gaming app, and also didn’t have any knowledge as to how the app was used to dupe people.
Countering that, the public prosecutor argued that besides E-Nuggets, the accused had also launched a second app to lure people to be a part of product membership trading business against hefty commission.
The public prosecutor also argued that initially, as many as 147 bank accounts were opened for transfer of money from common people who were duped in that process.
“Later, the accumulated money in these 147 bank accounts were transferred to five specific bank accounts. The total fraud would be to the tune of around Rs 47 crore,” the public prosecutor alleged.
The ED conducted raids on September 10 under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) at six premises in Kolkata. A case was registered at the Park Street police station based on a complaint filed by Federal Bank authorities against Khan and others.
Khan had launched a mobile gaming application named E-Nuggets, which was designed for the purpose of defrauding the public. During the initial period, the users were rewarded with commission and the balance in the wallet could be withdrawn in a hassle-free manner which provided confidence to the users, who started investing bigger amounts for greater percentage of commission and a greater number of purchase orders.
After collecting handsome amounts from the public, all of a sudden withdrawal from the said app was stopped on one pretext or the other. Thereafter, all data, including profile information, was wiped out from the said app server.
(IANS)
