Cuttack: Cuttack police busted a cybercrime racket and arrested the mastermind from Muniguda in Rayagada district.
According to reports, police had received inputs that a gang was robbing gullible people by asking them to invest in online trading through fake trading applications. Recently, an employee of a private company and resident of Cuttack CDA Sector 9, lodged a complaint with the Cuttack Cyber Police that he was duped of Rs 24 lakh by a gang who promised him handsome returns from an online trading app. Acting on the complaint, police launched an investigation and unearthed that a gang led by one Surendra Sahu was operating a cyber fraud training center in the Badambadi area of Cuttack and providing online trading training to youths.
Police have arrested Surendra Sahu, is a diploma engineer from a private college in Odisha, from Muniguda on charges of developing fake trading applications. Surendra’s accomplice Keshav Gowda of Khalikot in Ganjam district has also been arrested.
Surendra, 42, a native of Basta area of Balasore district, procured fake Aadhaar and PAN cards in his name and formed his own gang. His associate Keshav helped Surendra to expand his network in Berhampur and Cuttack. He used to get people and promised them an income of up to Rs 50,000 daily after completing a free training.
Keshav was training such people and collecting money from them. He deposited the money from the online fraud in Surendra’s bank accounts in Delhi, West Bengal and Balasore. While Surendra was developing fake online trading applications, Keshav was advising people to trade through these applications. After the money was deposited in Surendra’s fake account, this application was closed. New applications were developed every 4 to 5 months. In this way, the two cheated about Rs 60 lakh. Surendra and Keshav went to Bangkok and Dubai with this money from investors at different times.
The police seized two mobile phones, 6 SIM cards, Aadhaar and PAN cards from Surendra.
