Lucknow: Three members of an interstate gang, including a woman, were arrested from a hotel in Lucknow for allegedly duping two people of ₹93 lakh on the pretext of arranging USDT (Tether) cryptocurrency using forged letters purportedly issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), police said.“The accused allegedly offered the victims a 2-3% commission on digital currency transactions and used forged documents purportedly issued by the RBI and SEBI to make the deal appear genuine,” said DCP East Deeksha Sharma.The arrests followed two FIRs registered at Vibhutikhand police station after Akhilesh Tripathi and Anjani Kumar separately alleged that they had been duped of ₹43 lakh and ₹50 lakh respectively on the pretext of providing USDT.Police said their investigation led them to a room at Hotel Dayal Gateway, where a team arrested the trio around 6.15am on Friday.The accused have been identified as Farida Sikander Saudagar, 51, of Thane, Maharashtra; Pawan Bisht, 54, from Delhi; and Avadhesh Kumar Mishra, 68, of Lucknow.Police said questioning revealed that the suspects would approach people interested in digital currency and offer to arrange USDT at attractive terms.Police recovered an Apple laptop, three Android phones, 12 forged authority letters — six purportedly issued by RBI and six by SEBI — besides three cheque books, two passbooks, two Indian passports, PAN and Aadhaar cards, three ATM/debit cards and a stamp bearing the name “FOR MPS INFORMATICS PRIVATE LIMITED”.Investigators are examining the electronic devices and documents recovered from the suspects to ascertain whether the gang has duped more people and whether others were involved in the operation.
