Bhubaneswar, May 8
The Odisha Police personnel arrested one cyber fraudster from Alipore in Kolkata of West Bengal in connection with an investment fraud to the tune of Rs 2.36 crore, a senior Crime Branch official said on Thursday.
The victim, a 50-year-old individual from Purighat area of Cuttack city, came in contact with a Whatsapp group, "C-51 ICICI Securities Official Stock" in October 2023.
After he joined the group, the cyber criminals persuaded him to invest in stocks and IPOs via fake apps (https://app.fiosh.com, https://bolsip.com),promising high returns against his investment.
The accused persons initially gave away small profits to gain his trust.
The victim was also later offered a fake loan to invest in IPOs and shared another application.
Persuaded by the accused fraudsters, the complainant made further payments to get the loan.
When the victim found his overall returns against investments made by him had touched over Rs 3 crore, he tried to withdraw the funds but failed due to a "Pending Review" status.
The cyber fraudsters instead pressurised the complainant to repay a non-existent loan of Rs 1.5 crore. Thus, he soon realised being fallen into the trap of cyber fraudsters.
The victim had deposited Rs 2.36 crore between October 2023,to April 2024 in various accounts provided by the criminals.
Finding no other way, the complainant finally lodged a complaint at the Cyber Crime Police Station of Crime Branch in Cuttack in April 2024.
Based on the complaint, the police launched an investigation into the matter and arrested one accused Mohammed Zaki from Hyderabad in Telangana last year.
In this connection, the investigating team after analyzing the transaction details and other digital evidence, arrested another accused, Nikhil Jaiswal (23) of Khiddipore area in Kolkata on Tuesday (May 6, 2025).
The Crime Branch officials informed in a press statement that out of the total fraud amount of Rs 2.36 crore was deposited in accused Jaiswal’s account.
The police have seized various incriminating articles including a Mobile Phone, SIM Cards, screenshots of chats in WhatsApp, Aadhar Cards and a PAN Cards, Bank passbooks, Cheque Books, Debit Cards etc.
Meanwhile, the Crime Branch has arrested one more accused, Tapas Haldar (28) from Kolkata for duping on the pretext of Investment fraud to a tune of Rs 6.04 crore. Earlier, one hotelier Ashok Nanda and his aide Jayarani Basak were arrested from West Bengal on May 1, 2025.