Bhubaneswar, April 16 (IANS) The Odisha Police’s Financial Offences Wing (EOW) has arrested two “fraudsters” for duping a number of buyers in Odisha and Maharashtra on the pretext of excessive returns by investments in cryptocurrency, an official stated on Monday.
In line with police, EOW sleuths arrested the prime accused, Ved Prakash, from Anupgarh in Rajasthan on April 10 whereas the Odisha head of the racket, Sudhir Patel, was held from Sundargarh in Odisha on April 14.
“Accused Ved Prakash was previously working as a Constable in Rajasthan Police and was terminated after 5 years of service for his misconduct and dereliction of obligation,” added the official.
The duo was apprehended in reference to a fraud case registered primarily based on a criticism lodged by Prem Sagar Khamari, one of many victims who misplaced greater than Rs 48 lakhs to the fraud. Khamari reportedly obtained a meagre Rs 20,000 in opposition to his funding within the fraud crypto scheme.
Khamari alleged in his criticism that the accused individuals duped a number of buyers, particularly in western Odisha, of greater than Rs 14 crore by inducing them to put money into totally different crypto schemes by companies like ENG Crypto, Entice Capital, USDT Membership, ADS Trade, and CRIT 11, amongst others. The accused neither invested in cryptocurrency nor returned the cash of the victims.
“The accused individuals together with their associates held many promotional programmes in several elements of Odisha in 2022. They lured the victims — most of them are laptop illiterates, by pretend brochures, and leaflets to put money into the cryptocurrency to get excessive returns and even double the invested quantity inside a really quick interval. Additionally they requested the targets to incorporate extra buyers in lieu of some further advantages,” EOW sources stated.
The fraudsters used to pay the up-line members the promised returns from the quantity collected from the downline members.
The EOW ascertained throughout the due course of the investigation that the duo had duped round 500 buyers from totally different elements of Puri, Bhubaneswar, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Sundargarh and Bargarh of Odisha of greater than Rs 15 crore. The accused additionally dumped a number of gullible individuals in Maharashtra.
EOW sources claimed that the Maharashtra Police may even be alerted in regards to the rip-off and the fraudsters.
The duo was on Monday produced earlier than the designated court docket below the OPID Act, Cuttack.
–IANS
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