Faridabad, May 3

The cybercrime cell of the local police arrested 16 persons for cheating a victim of Rs 7.59 crore in the name of investing the money in the share market. According to sources, this is perhaps the highest amount defrauded in one single incident in the district so far.

ACP (cybercrime) Abhimanyu Goyat said the suspects were identified as Prashant Kumar (34), Saeed and Mohd Jishan (22), Saeed Suhail (32), Hari Kishan (27), Ram Singh alias Dhallu (37), Akash (27), Rohit (34), Mahendra alias Ritesh (26), Dinesh Kumar (26), Dipendra (31), Rinku (30), Indrajeet (36), Rahul (28), and Kailash and Dinesh Kumar (31). He said, while one suspect hails from Bengaluru, two are from Lucknow, three from Jaipur, one from Jodhpur, three from Bikaner, one from Dehradun, two from Delhi, one from Faridabad, one from Gurugram and one from Rohtak. The police arrested Rahul on the basis of sources and technical assistance, and recovered the mobile phone used in the execution of the crime. The police then arrested the remaining suspects within a week. He said that the suspects had revealed that they sent a link to the victim, a local resident, on Facebook luring her to invest in the share market and earning profits.

According to the complainant, after clicking on the link sent by the suspects she was led to a WhatsApp group named "ICICI IR TEAM (57)". She told the police that she noticed that the investors had been earning huge profits, she opened an account with the initial investment of Rs one lakh. She claimed that the group members had been making money fraudulently and the amount had almost reached Rs 7.59 crore within three months.

The police have recovered 24 mobile phones, 556 SIM cards, 67 cheque books, 62 ATM cards and cash amounting to Rs 15.17 lakh from the suspects, who were nabbed from various locations. A police spokesperson said the investigation was underway and more arrests could not be ruled out.