HYDERABAD: Hyderabad police on Saturday apprehended a 33-year-old chartered accountant and his associate in Gujarat’s Surat for allegedly defrauding a retired man of Rs 60.88 lakh in the guise of helping him earn more profits through a trading app.
The accused, identified as Kanani Nikunj Kishore (33) and Pravinbhai Kalubhai (55), allegedly sent a WhatsApp message to the victim asking him to join block trading through ‘Motilal Oswal Securities’.
They then shared another message with the victim on Telegram. This time, it had a link to download an application - https://app.motelae.com, convincing the victim that the app will help him in trading.
The victim was asked to deposit money in the account and start trading shares through the app. A mentor reportedly gave the victim instructions on how to carry out the trades.
“After each trade, the victim was shown profits and asked to add more funds in the account,” the police said and added, “They told him to participate in IPO trading as well.”
Over time, the victim realised that the phone numbers used by the accused were fake and each time, they kept changing bank accounts stating the account limit was full. The accused then stopped communication with the victim.
After a police complaint was registered, the cybercrime police traced the accused and found them to be natives of Gujarat. During the special drive, the accused were caught and 226 bank cheque books, a net cash of Rs 27.20 lakh, five mobile phones, 18 debit cards, nine bank passbooks, six SIM cards and 15 fake ID cards were seized from their possession.
Upon investigation, the police found that the different bank accounts used by the accused were involved in 142 cybercrime cases registered across the country. The police have now issued notices to all the banks to freeze the accounts.