Two held for defrauding resident of ₹48.5L

Noida

Two persons were arrested for allegedly defrauding a person of ₹48.5 lakh in the guise of share trading through fraudulent apps and shell companies from Sector 44 on Wednesday, police.

One of the accused, a private bank employee, opened fake accounts while the other ran a firm in Delhi, police said. They were identified as Rishabh Mishra and Dheeraj Porwal, respectively. They were arrested from near an under-construction flyover in Aghapur.

“The arrested accused, to open the accounts of RK Traders and other shell companies, rented a shop in the name of a fake firm by preparing a rent agreement and claiming themselves to be traders. They got banners and seals of various firms prepared at the address of the shop,” a police officer said.

According to police, the accused lured potential victims through WhatsApp groups and got them to invest in the shell companies, promising high returns, and pay additional amount for income tax. The victim paid ₹48.5 lakh in all.

A mobile phone used in the incident and ₹3.25 lakh (frozen in various bank accounts) were recovered from the the accused, the police said.

“The accused had opened accounts in the name of fake firms in various banks, in which the amount of crores of rupees related to the fraud was transferred,” the officer said.

The matter came to fore after the victim, Ajay Kumar Srivastav, registered a case on June 16, based on which an FIR under sections 420 (cheating), 467, 468, 471 and 120B of the IPC and sections 66 and 66D of the IT Act.

Police said at least 30 more victims had been identified by a thorough sweep of the electronic devices of the accused and suspect that the fraud could run into crores of rupees.