Rajkot: A 34-year-old electrical engineer working for an energy company was cheated of Rs 25.86 lakh in an online share trading scam.Though the crime happened in 2024, the victim, Kamlesh Tirthani, lodged a complaint at Cybercrime police station in Jamnagar on Monday, against persons knowns as Meera, James, the users of a certain stock trading website and several bank account holders. On April 28, 2024, Tirthani came across an Instagram reel claiming investors could learn about the stock market and boost their portfolios. After clicking the advertisement, he was added to a WhatsApp group share market trading was being discussed. A person identifying herself as Meera, claiming to be an agent of a company called Prime Management Limited, contacted him through the group. She promised significant profits if he traded through their platform. She also claimed that the company was registered with SEBI.Initially, Tirthani was asked to deposit a minimum of Rs 10,000. Later, between June 2 and July 4, 2024, he transferred Rs 25.86 lakh in five transactions.On June 22, after depositing Rs 15.86 lakh, Tirthani stated that his online account displayed a profit, showing a balance of around Rs 81 lakh. When he tried to withdraw Rs 20 lakh, Meera told him that he had to first deposit Rs 19 lakh as a 30% profit-sharing fee.When Tirthani said he did not have the money, she told him to deposit Rs 10 lakh instead. After he transferred the Rs 10 lakh, Meera stopped answering his calls and switched off her phone.
