A person was arrested from Madhya Pradesh on Monday for his alleged involvement in an investment fraud of ₹72 lakh reported in New Town this February.
Complainant Deep Kumar Nath, a resident of Narayanpur near New Town, had come across an app that promised lucrative returns on investments, police said.
“Nath had invested through Vikasha Trading app, hoping that his money would be doubled. Later, he realised that he had been cheated when he failed to withdraw the money,” said an officer of Bidhannagar City Police.
After Nath reported the ₹72 lakh fraud at Narayanpur police station, officers began tracking transactions made from the app.
“It was found that several bank accounts and e-wallets were beneficiaries of this app. One of the bank accounts was linked to a person based in Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh,” said the officer.
A police team from Bidhannagar conducted a raid in Chhindwara and arrested one of the accused involved in the fraudulent transactions.
The police identified the accused as Sunny Virha, also known as Raja.
He was arrested on Monday and has been brought to Calcutta on a three-day transit remand. He was produced before the Barrackpore court on Tuesday and has been sent to police remand.
In the majority of such cases where the siphoned money is transferred from multiple accounts, mule accounts are used for the fund transfer to create various layers and to divert police investigation.
“Most of the mule accounts are opened with fake identity documents, so that when any law enforcement agency goes to track them, no one is found. But in this case, we found that a person had used this account who was also the recipient of the siphoned money,” said an officer.
The police stated they were investigating whether more such bank accounts were linked to the app.
According to the protocol, once a bank account is identified as being involved in such fraud, the account is reported to the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal.
Virha has been booked under sections of cheating and criminal breach of trust.
