Mumbai: Four booked for duping investors of Rs 6.57 cr in gold investment scheme

Four members from a family of jewellers were booked on for allegedly duping 18 investors of Rs 657 crore reported PTI citing a Navi Mumbai police officialAccording to the PTI report the accused lured 18 persons into investing Rs 657 crore in a gold scheme by promising them high returns the Panvel town police station official saidThe victims did not get the promised returns or the money they had invested the official addedThe four have been booked under Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors MPID Act on WednesdayThane police bust international racket of SIM cards use for cyber fraud 3 heldThe officials said that Thane police have busted an international racket of supplying SIM cards to fraudsters in places like Cambodia Dubai and China for share trading fraud and other cyber crimes reported news agency PTIThree persons have been arrested in this connection two from Chhattisgarh and one from Delhi and 779 preactivated SIM cards were seized from them Thane Deputy Commissioner of Police Cybercrime and EOW Parag Manere told reporters on WednesdayThe police suspect that around 3000 SIM cards have been put to use in a similar manner he saidDuring a probe into 16 such cases registered in Maharashtras Thane the police also got a lead that these crimes were being committed through WhatsApp with the use of 30 mobile phones and nearly 2600 SIM cards activated from Chhattisgarh Tripura and other places reported PTIUpon verification it was found that these numbers were activated through a WhatsApp IP in Hong Kong the official said reported PTIWhile probing a specific case of cheating of Rs 293 lakh the Thane police found some SIM cards and the mobile handsets were being used from ChhattisgarhOn July 5 the Thane police arrested Aftab Irshad Debar 22 and Manishkumar Mohit Deshmukh 27 both from Chhattisgarh and seized 779 preactivated SIM cards a laptop two WiFi routers 23 mobile handsets 50 debitcredit cards and 20 cheque bookspassbooks from their possession the official said reported PTIDuring their interrogation it came to light that one Bhaijan Hafiz Like Ahmed 48 from south Delhi purchased the SIM cards and sold them to a gang based in Dubai and cheated people in various cyber crimes The police subsequently arrested him he said reported PTIThe gang members procured the SIM cards from street vendors by fraudulently capturing the biometric fingerprints of customers who came to those shopsThe SIM cards were then activated and linked to the bank accounts where the illgotten money was transferred the police saidThe associates of the arrested accused operating from Raipur Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh and Delhi supplied the SIM cards to criminals in Cambodia Dubai China and other countries who used them in cybercrimes there they said reported PTIThe arrested persons also informed the police that around 3000 SIM cards had already been supplied in foreign countries in a similar mannerFurther probe indicated that around six bank accounts were linked to these SIM cards and a mega financial cheating racket was operating the police said reported PTIThe police also came across 14 similar cases registered in Rajasthan Haryana Andhra Pradesh Telangana Gujarat and Kerala This information was obtained through the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal the official said reported PTISearch was on for the associates of the arrested accused the police said