Pune: The economic offences wing of Pune police is investigating a complaint by a 62-year-old man alleging that a group of fraudsters, posing as a family from Uttar Pradesh, cheated him out of Rs 6.51 crore.The complainant told police the fraudsters promised him handsome returns if he invested in the market through them. The fraud happened between Jan 2022 and July 2025. The Nanded City police registered a formal FIR on Tuesday.According to the FIR, the complainant, who operated a glue-tape company in Pirangut, retired in 2021 after selling the firm.Police said the complainant holds accounts on multiple share-trading platforms. In Jan 2022, he saw an online advertisement promising a 50% return on investment in days. He contacted the fraudsters, who claimed to be a family operating a share-trading firm.According to the police, the suspects told the complainant to initially invest at least Rs 2 lakh — he invested Rs 4 lakh. Police said the fraudsters transferred Rs 4.03 lakh in “profit” to convince him to keep investing with them.The fraudsters stopped payments citing the 2022 UP assembly election and did not resume even after the results were declared, but the complainant transferred amounts ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh.But over the course of the following seven months, the suspects offered multiple excuses — losses, etc. — for not crediting the complainant’s account with the promised returns.The complainant stated that the suspects contacted him again, asking him to transfer more money on the promise of returning his entire investment with profits. After he transferred Rs 3-5 lakh, the suspects issued a cheque for Rs 50 lakh, but it bounced. After fruitlessly waiting some more, he approached the police. In all, he transferred Rs 8.12 crore and got back Rs 1.78 crore.
