
KOCHI: Retired Kerala High Court Judge Sasidharan Nambiar has become the latest victim of a cyber scam after he lost Rs 90 lakh through a bogus share trading app.
Justice Nambiar 'invested' in the bogus share trading app titled 'Adithya Birla', a name that's eerily similar to the Mumbai-based financial major Aditya Birla group, according to the police.
Hill Palace Police Station, Tripunithura, registered a case and launched a probe into the incident.
The modus operandi of the fraudsters is as follows. First, he was added to the WhatsApp group named 'Adithya Birla', later a link was sent to him for share trading offering 850% profit on investments.
Between December 4 and December 30, Justice Nambiar 'invested' around Rs 90 lakhs. But after that, neither the promised profit nor the invested money was returned.
Police have registered a case against Ayana Joseph and Varsha Singh, which the police suspect are the bogus names used by fraudsters. The case was transferred to Kochi Cyber Police for a detailed investigation.
Justice Nambiar, who stays in Eroor in Kochi, retired from service in 2013.
"Between December 12, 2024, and December 30, 2024, Rs 90 lakhs was transferred from bank accounts via IMPS and RTGS. However, neither the promised profit or invested money was returned till now," as per the FIR.
The case was registered charging BNS sections 316(4) for criminal breach of trust, 318(4) for cheating and dishonestly inducing someone to deliver property and section 66D of the Information Technology Act for cheating by impersonation.
The case was registered on January 5 following the complaint by Justice Nambiar.
Hill Palace police have decided to hand over the probe to Ernakulam Cyber Police to conduct further investigation.
"We started the investigation based on bank accounts into which the money was transferred. We suspect that bogus bank accounts were used to transfer the amount. The details of the bank account holders were collected and attempts are being made to trace these persons. These accounts will be frozen soon," a police officer said.
Over Rs 700 crores were swindled by cyber fraudsters from Kerala in the year 2024. Police also blocked close to 36,000 bank accounts that were found involved in organised cyber scams. The number of such cases are increasing at an alarming rate annually.