Two Gujarat men arrested for ₹49 lakh cyber fraud via fake trading app

Panchkula: The cyber crime police station of Panchkula Police has busted a cyber fraud racket involved in duping people on the pretext of share market investments, arresting two men from Surat for allegedly cheating a local resident of over ₹49 lakh through a fake trading application.

The accused have been identified as Jaimin Hansmukh Bhai Thumar and Darshak Prakash Bhai Gajera, both residents of Surat, Gujarat. They were arrested in connection with a case registered on April 30 under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). A local court has granted seven days of police remand for further investigation and to trace other members of the racket.

According to police, the complainant told investigators that in January 2026 he came across an Instagram reel claiming to help investors recover stock market losses and earn high returns. After clicking a WhatsApp link in the video, he was added to multiple WhatsApp groups where individuals posing as investment experts persuaded him to open a “primary trading account” and invest in so-called special shares.

The fraudsters allegedly introduced themselves as representatives associated with Kotak Securities, gaining the victim’s trust. He was then asked to download a trading app—which later turned out to be fake—and transfer money to various bank accounts over different dates.

Cyber Crime Police Station SHO Yudhvir said the victim transferred a total of ₹49.31 lakh between February and April 2026 into accounts linked to different companies and individuals. To build confidence, the accused initially credited around ₹7,000 as fake profits, while the application showed investments ballooning to more than ₹1.17 crore.

The fraud came to light when the complainant attempted to withdraw funds and was instead asked to deposit an additional ₹13.65 lakh towards service charges, brokerage and taxes. Growing suspicious, he visited a Kotak Securities office and was informed that no such trading account existed and the app installed on his phone was fake. He subsequently lodged a complaint on the national cyber crime portal.

ACP (Crime) Arvind Kamboj said a technical investigation was launched, with police obtaining data from WhatsApp, Google and SEBI. The fake application and the associated Google account were traced to the two accused in Gujarat.

Investigations revealed that the fake app and related Google IDs were created by the accused during their BTech studies in 2021 and were later used for cyber fraud operations. Both were arrested on May 10 and produced before a court.

Police said several crucial disclosures have been made during interrogation. Efforts are on to identify other accomplices and to ascertain whether the accused used additional fake Google IDs and mobile numbers to carry out similar frauds across the country.