Stock market fraud racket unearthed, 9 held | Latest News Delhi

Delhi Police said on Monday they busted a gang of cybercriminals who impersonated stock market experts and duped investors on the pretext of offering high returns for trading stocks through a bogus app “CHE-SES”. At least four persons were duped of ₹2.38 crore, police said, adding nine persons were arrested on charges of floating shell companies, opening around 400 bank accounts linked to these firms, persuading victims to open dedicated bank accounts for investments and convincing them to give account access, on commission basis, to gang members operating out of Dubai, among other countries.

The intelligence fusion and strategic operations (IFSO) unit of Delhi Police, which made the bust, recovered 84 mobile phones, 250 SIM cards, 28 ATM cards, five voter ID cards, two laptops, four cheque books and one booklet of a shell company.

Deputy commissioner of police (IFSO) Hemant Tiwari said that on January 17, the IFSO received a complaint from a resident, identified as Vishal Sodhi, of Uttam Nagar, who was cheating on the pretext of investment through the CHE-SES trading app. Three more such complaints were received from Delhi residents, identified as Manoj Kumar, Rajbir Yadav and Shailendra Kumar, who alleged that they were added to a WhatsApp group where online tutorials regarding “how to invest in trading for high returns” were given, said Tiwari.

“The complainants were induced to invest in multiple companies through their respective bank accounts amounting to ₹2.38 crore. After they were cheated, a case was registered on February 16 and investigation was taken up. Initial probe revealed that there were 25 beneficiary bank accounts to which the complainants were tricked into depositing their invested money,” the DCP said.

The police first arrested Munish Sharma, 37, who was in possession of the mobile phones and had access to the email ID linked with the bank accounts. Questioning him led to arrest of eight others, police said. The others were identified as Gaurav Kumar, 34, Paramjit Kumar alias Rinku, 27, Ram Kumar Raman, 32, Vikas Bansal, 52, Tushar Garg, 30, Manoj Bansal, 50, Rajesh Kumar Goyal, 57, and Rachna, 26, who goes by her single name.

The CHE-SES app was launched in November 2023 and hundreds of investors were duped to the tune of several crores of rupees, police said.

Tiwari said Gaurav, Munish, Vikas and Tushar used to contact indigent people and convince them to open bank accounts in their names, in lieu of a commission. They used to win the confidence of victims by offering them attractive commissions for the money accruing in their accounts. They also collected their Aadhaar cards, PAN cards and other KYC (know your customer) documents, floated bogus firms and created bank accounts using their credentials.

“The accused used the bank accounts to siphon off the cheated money. These firms are also used by them for the purpose of GST theft and other purposes. Thereafter, they sold out these banking credentials including ATM cards and SIM cards linked to these accounts to their counterparts in Dubai for using these bank accounts in cyber fraud,” Tiwari said.