Delhi Police nabs 2 in Rs 10 crore stock investment scam being operated from Nepal

New Delhi: A social media chat turned into a costly ordeal for a Delhi resident, ultimately exposing a stock investment scam operated from a hotel in Nepal, with fraudulent transactions exceeding Rs 10 crore in just one month, an official said on Monday.

Two people, Shashi Pratap Singh (28), a BBA graduate and Nihal Pandey (27), who holds an MCA degree, have been apprehended from Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur in this regard, the police official said.

Shashi disclosed that Nihal had taken him to Nepal, from where these phoney operations were being conducted.

Nihal revealed that a person had tasked him with arranging multiple bank accounts for laundering the defrauded money.

"Nihal had taken Shashi to Nepal, where they stayed in a hotel with three others and handed over SIM cards and banking credentials to a person," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) Prashant Gautam said.

He added that in return, Shashi was promised a 1.5 per cent commission on transactions and reportedly received Rs 8–10 lakh in cash.

Police said transactions totalling Rs 10.40 crore were conducted over a month using just one private bank account.

"The case came to light when complainant Sachin Kumar Tomar approached the police after being defrauded of Rs 8.15 lakh. He alleged that he was lured into investing in a fraudulent online trading platform by a woman named Sakshi Yadav, whom he met on social media," Gautam said.

She persuaded the victim to open a trading account and added him to a messaging group, claiming it was operated by her uncle and an associate named Rakesh, he said.

Tomar deposited Rs 8.15 lakh into bank accounts. However, when he attempted to withdraw the returns on his "profits," the transactions failed, and his access was blocked.

A case was registered, and investigators found that Rs 5.75 lakh of the cheated funds had been transferred to a private bank account. Further probe revealed the account was jointly held by Shashi and his father, Ramashankar Singh, the DCP said.

"Although the father claimed no knowledge of the transactions, he admitted to being a joint account holder. Shashi was arrested following sustained interrogation," an officer said, adding that Nihal was also arrested from Gorakhpur.

The gang operated by first contacting potential victims through social media platforms and posed as financial experts. They then lured victims with the promise of high returns on stock market investments.

Initially, small profits were shown to build trust. As soon as larger investments were made, victims were blocked or told their accounts were frozen due to fictitious compliance issues.

To execute this fraud on a large scale, the accused needed multiple bank accounts and SIM cards, which they obtained by luring people with cash incentives, the officer said.