In a major breakthrough, the Goa Police Cyber Crime Cell arrested Kumar Utlasar, a 50-year-old Bengaluru resident, in connection with an alleged investment scam worth Rs2.3 crore. The arrest came after a complaint was filed by a Valpoi resident, who reported being duped through a series of fraudulent investment messages on WhatsApp.
According to SP Rahul Gupta of the Goa Police Crime Branch, the case was registered on October 22, following the victim’s complaint. The complainant had been lured into a WhatsApp group named “A-33 High-Quality Stocks Exchange Group,” where he was convinced to invest in what were promised to be high-return stocks—including IPOs and upper-circuit stocks.
The accused, Kumar Utlasar, who is associated with the company Aurinko Diensten, used the SMIFSMAX app to facilitate these investments. The victim, trusting the advice provided through the group, transferred Rs1 crore into several bank accounts over multiple transactions. Investigators soon traced these payments back to Utlasar’s company, Aurinko Diensten, which was identified as the main recipient of the fraudulent funds.
Further investigation revealed that Utlasar not only funneled a portion of the funds into other accounts but also used Rs6 lakh from the victim’s investment for his personal expenses. The police also found that Utlasar’s bank transactions showed connections to cyber fraud cases across nine Indian states, with the total amount involved in these scams estimated at Rs2.3 crore.