9 held for duping people through fake trading app

Rourkela: Cyber police in Rourkela on Monday arrested nine cyber fraudsters who duped several individuals through a fake trading app, promising huge returns. Police have seized a total of Rs 1.41 crore from 23 accounts operated by the fraudsters so far. A total of 176 accounts are under scrutiny, and necessary action has been initiated, police said on Wednesday.
They have been identified as Kishan Agrawal (26), Kunal Agarwal (25), Arjun Singh (27), Girdhari Singh alias Ram (24), Ajay Kumar (25), Sandeep Kumar Soni (28), Soumendra Singh Rajput (27), Abhijit Bharadwaj (27), and Dinesh Kumar Sahu (25). While Arjun is a native of Uttarakhand, the other eight hail from Chhattisgarh. Police said Kishan is the mastermind, who was operating from Dubai. He was arrested by Rourkela cyber police when he returned to his native place in Raipur district recently.
Initially, police received a tip-off that some people were involved in cricket betting in two apartments. A team from Rourkela cyber crime & economic offence wing raided an apartment in Civil township recently, suspecting it to be a hub for cyber fraud. Two accused were detained, following which another apartment in Basanti Colony was raided, where five others were detained. Fake SIMs, multiple mobile phones and laptops were seized from the accused. Upon interrogation, the accused confessed to being part of a fraud racket. After winning the trust of investors by initially crediting some money, they duped the victims of lakhs of rupees.
The gang and their mule accounts were found involved in 27 cases across India, according to data from the Samanvaya portal of the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), ministry of home affairs.
"Further investigation is ongoing to identify other accused in the racket and to nab them," said Brijesh Kumar Rai, DIG (western range).