KOCHI: In a major breakthrough in one of Kerala’s biggest cyber fraud cases, Kochi city police on Sunday arrested two accused in Hyderabad in connection with the Rs 25-crore fake online trading scam in which a Kochi-based pharmaceutical businessman was cheated.
The arrests follow a financial trail that led investigators to a 36-year-old Hyderabad-based businessman running a construction firm, who is suspected to have received nearly Rs 16 crore of the defrauded amount. Police believe the money was routed into his business and layered as legitimate income, pointing to a wider laundering network linked to the cyber fraud.
The fraud was carried out between March 15 and August 29, 2023, through a sophisticated fake trading application. Pursuing financial leads, an 11-member cyber investigation team had been in Hyderabad for over a week.