New Delhi, Sep 26 (PTI) Five men, including a UPSC aspirant, were arrested for allegedly duping people by luring them with the promise of high returns on investments, police said on Tuesday.

The accused have been identified as Vivek Kumar Singh (33), Manish Kumar (23), Suhel Akaram (32), residents of Gurgaon in Haryana, Gaurav Sharma (23), a resident of West Sagarpur, and Balram (32), a resident of Noida in UP, they said.

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On June 2, a complaint was lodged where the victim stated that he had received a message on his WhatsApp. He was allured to invest in an application with high return. They first asked to invest small amount of Rs 1,000 with promise to return Rs 1,100. He invested Rs 1,000 in a group, a senior police officer said.

He got Rs 1,100. The accused further asked him to invest Rs 10,000 with the promise to return Rs 12,000 and later the victim was cheated of around Rs 30 lakh, police said.

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During investigation, it was revealed that the money was transferred to several bank accounts in different cities. One current bank account was opened in the name of fake firm AIRSKY at Nangalraya, Delhi, the officer said.

The premise was rented by Akram. Sharma also used to work with him. Investigation further revealed that 11 fake companies were registered at this address showing different persons as directors in the above company. On September 18, Akram and Sharma were apprehended from Malviya Nagar, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (central) Sachin Sharma said.

The accused disclosed that they used to take premise on rent for registration of shell companies by making forged documents. Further, they used to open current bank accounts in different banks using the name of such shell companies, he said.

Balram, friend of Akram, used to arrange people for nominating as directors in the companies. He was also arrested. Akram further disclosed that he used to supply the details of such fake current bank accounts to Vivek. Later, Vivek and Manish were also arrested, police said.

Vivek was in touch with his counterpart in Dubai and Philippines. He came in contact with some foreign nationals who were involved in online betting/gaming/investment. The daily transactions in these bank accounts were in crores, police said.

Vivek used to take 3-4 per cent commission over total transactions and further hand over 1.5 per cent to Akram, they said.

Vivek is a B.Tech and was a UPSC aspirant. He was involved in crime for two years. He used to obtain the fake current bank accounts from Akram and further transmit the details to his accomplices abroad, police added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)