7 held in Rs11cr online share-trading fraud case

Pune: The Pimpri Chinchwad cyber police on Friday claimed to have arrested seven people from Pune, Kolhapur, Mumbai and Rajasthan in connection with an online share fraud in which a former director (58) of a private company in Pimpri Chinchwad lost Rs11 crore.Their main job of the suspects was to supply mule bank accounts to their handlers. A Pimpri Chinchwad cyberpolice team, led by senior police inspector Ravikiran Nale, made the arrests. Rs1.8 crore was frozen across multiple bank accounts after scrutinising several transactions.
The former firm director had transferred Rs11 crore to different bank accounts between Nov last year and Jan this year. The crooks, posing as executives of a prominent securities investment company, offered good returns to him on investments in stocks. He believed them, as the crooks claimed that their company was registered with the Sebi. The crooks won the victim's confidence by returning Rs40 lakh profit on his investments. Till Jan 31 this year, he invested Rs11 crore and lost the sum to the crooks.An officer from the Pimpri Chinchwad cyber police said investigations revealed that Rs21 lakh was transferred to a bank account in Kolhapur. Police sub-inspector Vaibhav Patil and team took the account holder, Abhay Patil (34), into custody. Abhay provided about 12 mule bank accounts to his accomplice, Shivtej Pote (30) of Wagholi, and got commission for it. "Our team arrested Pote from Wagholi. We also arrested Yuvraj Mudaliar (35) from Lohegaon, and Pralhad Gadari (23) and Pankaj Girigosavi (24) from Rajasthan," the officer said.He said Gadari and Girigosavi were also involved in a digital arrest case.The officer said these arrested accused supplied mule bank accounts to their handlers. These handlers were in contact with their Chinese accomplices and operated from Nepal or other countries, he said.The officer said the cyberpolice established one more link of mule bank account suppliers in the same case. The police traced a bank account in Mumbai, where Rs25 lakh was transferred. A police team led by assistant inspector Pravin Swami arrested Vaibhav Udchane (28) of Dahisar in Mumbai. Udchane provided mule bank accounts to Rahul Maurya (24) of Dahisar. "We arrested Maurya too," the officer said.