Uttarakhand police bust Rs 350 crore scam that duped lakhs

Dehradun, June 10  

Uttarakhand Police has busted an online scam with foreign links, in which five lakh people from across the country lost a combined Rs 350 crore, officials said on Thursday, adding a man was arrested from Noida in connection with it.

The police have sought the help of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) for further investigation in the case, Director General of Police (DGP) Ashok Kumar said. 

The fraudsters duped people using an online app called, ‘Power Bank', which was available on Google Play Store till May 12, the officer said, adding, it offered lucrative returns on investment through different schemes. 

The money deposited in different schemes, using the app, was routed to foreign countries through cryptocurrency, he said.

The syndicate was run by a group of scamsters from China, according to a preliminary inquiry.

In connection with the scam, Pawan Kumar Pandey was arrested from Noida's Sector 99 on Monday. The Special Task Force (STF) recovered 19 laptops, five mobile phones and 592 SIM cards from his possession.

Police had received 25 complaints of fraud against the app from different parts of Uttarakhand, said Ajay Singh, Senior Superintendent of Police (STF), who led the probe into the case. 

The investigation process started after two persons from Haridwar district complained that the online app, through which they invested more than Rs 1.5 lakh, was now not available on Google Play Store, said Singh. PTI