Monday, 09 OCTOBER 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The Cyber Crime Police Station of the Uttarakhand Special Task Force (STF) has arrested a man on charges of his involvement in a scam worth at least Rs 18 crore carried out via fake shell companies in Dubai. Over 300 complaints are registered against the accused and he is wanted by the police of 18 states, claimed the deputy superintendent of police of cyber crime police station Ankush Mishra. He said that the accused has been identified as Harmeet Singh Bedi (33) and was arrested from Ludhiana in Punjab.
The STF received a complaint from a man named Sunny Singh in June this year who said that he was contacted by some unknown men via WhatsApp who claimed to work for a company that provides freelance work. They allegedly sent him a link to add him to their Telegram group through which they hacked his mobile phone and withdrew Rs 14.18 lakh. The DSP said a team was formed to investigate the case and after conducting a thorough technical investigation for months, the team found out the traces of the accused in Ludhiana. Bedi was finally arrested from Punjab on Saturday.
He said that the accused has confessed to his crimes and revealed that they also invested the scammed money in crypto trading. Mishra said that the gang operated by creating fake websites of renowned companies and then contacting people through WhatsApp, emails, calls and other social media sites as employees of these companies. They lure people by offering them a job with earnings of Rs 3,000 to 8,000 per day. They ask them to join a Telegram group via a link which is operated from Dubai to withdraw the victim’s money, said Mishra. It was revealed in the preliminary analysis of the case that the man along with his gang had carried out a scam of at least Rs 18 crore, claimed the DSP. He said that police of 18 states were also looking for the accused and the Uttarakhand STF might make more arrests in the case.
