The police suspect the accused have similarly duped people across the country. (Representational image)Four persons have been arrested for allegedly duping a Surat-based businessman and his friends of Rs 1.11 crore by luring them to invest in cryptocurrency.
The accused — Surat residents Sanjay Sontakke, Rajnikant Kubavat, Alpesh Bharodiya and Kirankumar Pansara — were arrested on Friday by the Mumbai Crime Branch. The police suspect the accused have similarly duped people across the country.
“The group asked people to invest in cryptocurrency and promised high returns in 60 days,” said a police officer. The accused allegedly took part in seminars in New Delhi, Surat and Mumbai to lure victims.
Umeshchandra Jain, a resident of Dahisar, in his complaint to the police, has claimed that he met the accused at a seminar in 2016. They promised to double his returns in 60 days. Jain and his friends went on to invest Rs 1.11 crore through cheques.
“In order to gain the trust of the victims, the group introduced them to three fake websites — http://www.cashhcoin.net, http://www.kashhkbccoin.com and http://www.afcmint.net — where they could log in and collect cash coins. They came up these fake websites with the help of a computer engineer,” said the officer.
Later, when the accused did not pay up, the complainants tried contacting them. “These fraudsters were nowhere to be found. The victims also found the websites shut. Sensing something amiss, they approached the Crime Branch with a complaint,” said an officer.
