NEW DELHI: Delhi Police has arrested a Chinese national in connection with a cyber fraud case in Shahdara district, where a man was defrauded to the tune of Rs 43 lakhs, a senior police officer said on Tuesday.
With the arrest of the accused Fang Chenjin, a Chinese national residing at Safdarjung enclave in the national capital, the cops managed to unravel an online stock trading scam of more than Rs 100 Crore which was being orchestrated via WhatsApp groups.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) Prashant Gautam said that a complaint was lodged at the cybercrime portal in July, were the complainant reported that he was lured into fraudulent stock market training sessions and subsequently tricked into investing Rs. 43.5 Lakhs in several transactions. These investments were directed to multiple bank accounts controlled by the fraudsters," the DCP said.
During the investigation, the police obtained details of the bank accounts to which the stolen funds were transferred and further analyzed the call records of several suspected mobile numbers.
A thorough investigation was conducted into the bank accounts and mobile numbers associated with all the suspect individuals, and technical analysis revealed a link to fraudulent activities.
"We traced the funds to a bank account registered under the name Maha Laxmi Traders, located in Mundka, Delhi. This account was found to be involved in fraudulent transactions, including a transfer of Rs. 1.25 lakh made in April of this year," said the senior officer.
Further inquiry led the police to a mobile phone which was registered in the name of Fang Chenjin, a Chinese national residing at Safdarjung Enclave, Delhi.
"He was arrested after evidence, including a mobile phone and WhatsApp chat logs were recovered from his possession. The WhatsApp conversations between him and an associate clearly showed that he was directing the fraudulent activities, including the recharge of the mobile number used in the scam," the officer said.
Further investigation revealed that Fang Chenjin is linked to two other significant fraud cases involving cybercrime and money laundering in Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
"There are also 17 criminal complaints registered with the Cyber Crime Portal, all linked to the same Fincare Bank account with the total amount defrauded exceeding Rs. 100 crores," the DCP said.
Further probe and subsequent interrogation of the accused Fang Chenjin revealed that he came to India on Work Visa for a Tiawani Company in Andhra Pradesh in April 2020.
Meanwhile, an officer privy to the probe told The New Indian Express that Chenjin was even arrested by the Andhra Pradesh police in a cheating case that was registered on the complaint of the company's owner where he was working as a vendor.
"He spent around 7 months in jail in Tirupati jail in Andhra Pradesh," the officer said.
Passport and Visa of the accused were seized at the time of arrest by the Andhra Police. When the Delhi Police arrested him, the accused Chinese national had no valid Visa.
