MADURAI: Dindigul police on Saturday arrested three more persons in connection with the FQL multi-crore cryptocurrency Ponzi scam. The police, since Friday, have received nearly 25,000 petitions related to the scam. Compared with Friday, the number of complaints lodged increased severalfold on Saturday.
Three special camps were organised by the Madurai rural police. The received petitions will be sent to the district headquarters and then to the EOW, Madurai, once the case is transferred to the special unit, the police said.
In Dindigul, the district crime branch police have registered a case against 10 suspects, including the three arrested on Saturday — Ramesh, his wife Anitha, and Vijay.
R Sakthivel, one of the investors from Melur, claimed that he initially invested Rs 50,000 and received returns. As agents insisted that investing in V G Investment would yield more profit, he invested around Rs 1 lakh and was cheated. He also claimed that Ranjith, the kingpin of the operation, was questioned by the police, but they failed to arrest him.
The police claimed he was also one of the agents and not a kingpin, and that he filed a “not-to-harass” petition. In separate videos on social media, Ranjith and his wife claimed innocence and said they faced threats to their lives.
The police said that those who invested in FQL got their money back till a specific period, but when they switched to V G Investment, the fraudsters siphoned off the money. Police believe that V G Investments was launched after the fraudsters sensed that their scam was likely to be exposed soon. Victims can file a complaint at their jurisdictional police station or cybercrime police station, or through the helpline number 1930 and online on http://www.cybercrime.gov.in.