Silchar: In a breakthrough in the widely reported trading scam in Assam’s Barak Valley, police have arrested alleged mastermind Jaideep Dutta from the Srikhona area under Silchar police station.Dutta, who had been evading arrest for several months, was nabbed late Tuesday night by a Tarapur police team acting on specific intelligence inputs, officials said.Cachar additional SP Rajat Kumar Pal on Wednesday said the accused had allegedly cheated multiple investors by promising unusually high returns through stock market trading. “Preliminary complaints indicate that around one-and-a-half years ago, the accused collected nearly Rs 37 lakh from several individuals using fraudulent trading schemes,” Pal said.Police suspect the scam could be much larger in scale. Investigations so far suggest that complaints have surfaced from across the three Barak Valley districts — Cachar, Hailakandi and Sribhumi — with alleged misappropriation estimated between Rs 15 crore and Rs 20 crore over the past 18 months.Dutta was produced before a local court on Wednesday, and police have sought his custody for further interrogation.
