Two men from Madhya Pradesh were arrested on Friday for allegedly defrauding a Faridabad resident of Rs49.48 lakh in a cyber scam disguised as a stock market investment opportunity, police said on Sunday.
The incident took place in December last year, when the victim, a resident of IP Colony, received a WhatsApp call promoting stock market investments with promises of high returns. Trusting the scheme, he transferred money into various bank accounts provided by the fraudsters.
Unbeknownst to the victim, these accounts were mule accounts used by scammers. After failing to withdraw any profits, he realized he had been scammed and filed a complaint with the Cyber (Central) police station on December 10. An FIR was registered and an investigation was launched.
According to Faridabad police, the suspects have been identified as Sukhdev Kumar (25) from Gopalpura in Morena and Siddharth Singh (27) from Bhind. Kumar worked as a cab driver, while Singh was the principal of a private school in his hometown.
“Out of the total defrauded amount, Rs10.1 lakh was traced to Singh’s bank account, which served as a mule account,” said Yashpal Yadav, Public Relations Officer, Faridabad police. “Kumar obtained access to Singh’s account and passed it on to other individuals involved in the fraud.”
Police revealed that both suspects received commissions for the money channeled through the mule account. Investigations are ongoing to identify other accomplices connected to Kumar.
The two were arrested from their native towns on Friday. While Singh was remanded to judicial custody after a court hearing on Saturday, Kumar was taken into four-day police remand for further questioning.