2 duped of lakhs in investment & bank assistance scams

Bhopal: Two separate cases of cyber fraud were filed in Kolar and Ashoka Garden , where the two men were duped of lakhs of rupees through online scams involving investment schemes and fake banking assistance.In the first case, Kolar police on Monday registered a cheating case against unidentified fraudsters following a complaint filed by a software engineer, who was allegedly duped on the pretext of share market investment. The complainant, Sunil Parkhe, 59, a resident of Beemakunj on Kolar Road, works as a software engineer in a private company.Lured by promises of easy profits, Parkhe initially invested Rs 1.5 lakh, which soon reflected as Rs1.9 lakh in his account on the platform. However, when he tried to withdraw the amount, he was told to pay GST and professional tax. The fraudsters collected a total of Rs 3.22 lakh from him under various charges. After the payments were made, he was removed from the group. In another incident, Ashoka Garden police registered a case after a man was allegedly duped of Rs 97,000. The complainant, Ashwini Narware, 21, reported the matter after noticing unauthorised transactions. Police said that in Dec 2025, Rs 590 was suddenly debited from his bank account, prompting him to contact his bank's helpline. He searched the helpline number on internet search and fell into the trap of fraudsters. During the call, the fraudster asked him to join a video call and share screenshots of his mobile screen. The accused then asked for details of another online payment wallet account from the victim.Soon after, Narware's phone became unresponsive. Later, when the device started functioning again, he discovered that a total of Rs 97,000 had been withdrawn from his account.