Hyderabadi duped into investing in ‘high-value stocks’, loses Rs 3 crores; one held

Hyderabad: Cyber Crime Police arrested one accused and served notices to two others for duping a person of Rs 3 crores in the name of providing high returns from investments in the stock market.

The arrested have been identified as Ronak Tanna (35) from Goa and the others are Judith Gonsalves and Sana Mohammed Qureshi.

Victim lured in through promises of high returns

The case came to light after a person from Hyderabad filed a complaint with the police explaining how the fraud was committed.

As per the complainant, the accused contacted her and asked her to invest in the stocks of a company called Unity Stocks. The caller said that if she invests and holds the amount for six months, she can get a minimum return of 30 per cent from the investment.

Convinced, the complainant invested more than Rs 3 crores (Rs 3,16,34,764) into the bank accounts provided to her by the accused. Finding out later that she had been cheated the victim approached the Cyber Crime police in Hyderabad and registered a case.

Each bank account sold for Rs 2 lakhs

The police said that Ronak Tanna was a habitual offender in such crimes. Using Judith and Sana to make calls across India, he collects bank accounts and sells them to Dubai nationals for easy gains.

The police said that he sells the bank accounts’ information to Arjun, Yug and Nitin residing in Dubai by taking a commission of Rs 1,00,000 to Rs 2,00,000 for each account. After getting the commission from Dubai, Ronak Tanna, Judith and Sana distribute the money among themselves.

So far, it was found that the accused has supplied over 95 accounts to Dubai through Arjun and Yug and 83 cases were registered across the country in different states against these 95 accounts.

The police also seized two laptops, six mobile phones, chequebooks, mobile SIM cards and 15 Debit cards from different banks from the accused.

Public advisory

The public has been advised not to believe in unknown persons contacted over social media platforms like Telegram, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook, offering to invest in the stock market for high returns and task-based investment offers and other sources and not to invest in unauthorised websites or through any other means, which lures people by promises high returns by investing little amounts while sitting at home.