BHUBANESWAR: Khandagiri police here on Monday arrested four persons on charges of cheating a youth of Rs 17 lakh on the pretext of helping him get profits through online trading business.
The accused were identified as
Ganeshan S K from Coimbatore, Jaydip Prakash Kulkarni from Vadodara, Naren N from Bengaluru and Nabin M from Coimbatore.
Police arrested them from a hotel in Khandagiri area where the accused were trying to lure some gullible investors. Police got clues about their modus operandi from Rajesh Kumar Patra, who was duped of Rs 17 lakh by the accused in February this year.
Police said Ganeshan had befriended Patra, a digital marketer, via social media in December last year and introduced himself as an online trader. In February he came to Bhubaneswar and met Patra. Ganeshan offered him at least 300% profit in a month on investments above Rs 10 lakh. An unsuspecting Patra agreed and paid Ganeshan Rs 7 lakh in February. Patra also gave Rs 10 lakh more to Ganeshan to start a business on sanitary products. Ganeshan had promised Patra to supply him sanitary products at 30% discount.
Deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Anup Kumar Sahoo said Ganeshan reneged on the two deals and cheated Patra. Patra came to know that Ganeshan and three of his associates were in Bhubaneswar on Sunday. The accused were trying to adopt the same modus operandi to hoodwink new victims. They were busy in a meeting with clients in a hotel when our personnel arrested them, Sahoo said. Police seized some currency notes of several countries from their possession.
"We are trying to verify whether the foreign currency notes were genuine or fake. If required, we would appeal to the court to grant custodial remand for their interrogation. We strongly suspect the accused might have cheated many people in similar fashion in the state," Sahoo said.
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