Rajkot: A 58-year-old Adipur resident was allegedly cheated of more than Rs 94 lakh in an online trading fraud after being lured by promises of double returns. The fraudsters allegedly displayed profits exceeding Rs 3.2 crore in a trading app but demanded a service fee of over Rs 63 lakh when he tried to withdraw his money.Rajesh Maheshwari, who works with a private firm in Gandhidham, lodged a complaint with the cybercrime police station, Kutch East, on Oct 9.According to the complaint, Maheshwari was added to a WhatsApp group on Aug 19, where messages promoted lucrative online trading investments. The group administrator, claiming to represent a trading company called DeltaaialGo, persuaded him to download an app and invest.Maheshwari initially invested Rs 72,920 and received a purported gain of Rs 3,820. Encouraged, he continued investing over the next one-and-a-half months, transferring more than Rs 94 lakh to various bank accounts. The app eventually showed a balance of Rs 4.1 crore, including claimed profits of Rs 3.2 crore.Having borrowed money from friends and taken an Rs 11 lakh loan to fund his investments, Maheshwari tried to withdraw Rs 88 lakh on Oct 5. When the transaction failed, the alleged fraudsters demanded a 20% service fee exceeding Rs 63 lakh before allowing withdrawals. They refused his request to deduct the fee from the displayed balance, prompting him to realise he had been cheated.Police registered a case under Sections 316(2), 318(4) and 3(5) of BNS, along with relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act.Investigating officer B V Borisagar told TOI that police were analysing Maheshwari’s bank statements to trace the recipient accounts and track the movement of funds. Investigators are also trying to identify the app’s creators, the WhatsApp group’s administrators and organisers, and the alleged mastermind. They are checking whether the recipient accounts have surfaced in other cybercrime cases.
