BENGALURU: The Hulimavu police have busted a major investment fraud and illegal online gambling racket, arresting 12 people from different states, including Karnataka.
With this, an estimated Rs 240 crore fraud has come to light, of which Rs 24 crore has been frozen, along with over 4,500 mule bank accounts.
The accused have been identified as Mohammed Huzaifa (22) and his mother Sabana, residents of HSR Layout, Bengaluru.
The other accused are Ankit Kumar Singh (32) and Akash Jaiswal (29) from Uttar Pradesh; Ajith Kumar Yadav (29) from Bihar; Satyakumar Pandey (27) from Jharkhand; Abhishek Singh Rathore, Vishwajit Singh Shekhawat, Kushal Singh Chauhan, Pradeep Singh Tanwar, Pitambar Singh, and Ajay Kumar—all residents of Rajasthan, aged between 25 and 30 years.
The prime accused, Prem Nathaneja (44), was operating the network from Dubai, police said, adding that a Look Out Circular is being issued against him. A cricket betting case has also been registered against him in Mumbai, and his family members are involved in the racket.
Police said Huzaifa was heading the racket in India and was responsible for creating mule bank accounts. Most of the accounts were opened in Bengaluru by targeting economically weaker individuals, who were paid between Rs 5,000 and Rs 8,000 to open accounts. Huzaifa collected their ATM cards and passbooks and sent them to Delhi.
Accused Ajit and Kushal acted as coordinators between Prem and the mule account handlers, while other accused managed transactions from an apartment in Delhi. Pradeep Singh handled the social media accounts used to promote the fraudulent platforms.
Probe into Rs 3.3 crore fraud leads to mule creator
According to the police, the accused advertised an unauthorised trading application named “Neo Systems” on various social media platforms, luring victims with promises of high returns.
Initially, victims received small profits and were coaxed into investing more money. After larger investments were made, victims were unable to withdraw funds. In one case, a 58-year-old businessman lost Rs 3.3 crore and filed a complaint.
During the probe, the police, along with the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP), froze multiple accounts. A bank account holder whose account had been frozen approached the police seeking clarification.
During questioning, he revealed that he had received money through "Swamji.com", an illegal online gaming application operated by the accused. The proceeds of the investment fraud were transferred to the accounts of gambling winners. Based on his inputs, the police identified the mule account creator, Huzaifa, following which Huzaifa and his mother were taken into custody.
They revealed about the team operating in Delhi, who were subsequently arrested and mule accounts were frozen, the police said, adding that the accused used the mule accounts for only about 20 days and had written ATM PINs on the debit cards for easy access.
The investigation was conducted by Hulimavu Inspector B G Kumaraswamy, Police Sub-Inspector Aravind Kumar G, and Police Constable Ramakrishna and other staff.