The Himachal Pradesh Police has arrested one of the masterminds of a Rs 2,500-crore cryptocurrency scam, which was unearthed in the state in 2022, from Kolkata, officials said on Thursday.
Accused Milan Garg (35), a resident of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, was arrested on Wednesday night from the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata while he was trying to flee to Bangkok in Thailand, they said.
Garg, who was allegedly involved in designing and marketing of a fake cryptocurrency, was later brought to Shimla, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Northern Range, Abhishek Dhullar told PTI.
Garg, who earlier fled to Dubai after the scam came to light, had returned to India in June and was again leaving the country when he was detained at Kolkata airport. The accused has been arrested and brought to Shimla, said Dhullar, who is heading an SIT probing the case.
The accused, the main associate of kingpin Subash Sharma who is still at large, was involved in designing of the cryptocurrency, software development and marketing, Dhullar said, adding that he would also convince prospective investors.
The cryptocurrency scam, which has duped thousands of people, started in 2018 but came to light in 2022 as the perpetrators of the fraud had threatened the investors to keep their mouth shut or lose money.
The investors smelled something fishy when they did not get money in return, but the victims did not come out openly against the fraudsters. However, later hundreds of victims came forward and uncovered the modus operandi of scammers and so far over 300 complaints have been received in this regard.
Police have arrested 26 people in connection with the case and charge sheets have been filed against 70 people so far. Some of the main accused arrested included Hemraj, Sukhdev, both from Mandi and Arun Guleria and Abhishekh from Una district of Himachal.
The scammers lured people by promising handsome returns in a short span of time and built a network of investors. People from different sections of society, including policemen and teachers, got involved in the scheme for quick returns.
The fraudsters approached people with an investment plan related to a locally made (in Mandi district) cryptocurrency known as ‘Korvio Coin’ or KRO coins. Three to four kinds of cryptocurrency were used and false websites in which the cryptocurrency prices were manipulated and inflated were created, police said.
Cryptocurrency is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that is not dependent on any central authority, such as the government or bank to uphold or maintain it.
The website used for the crypto scam had around 2.5 lakh different IDs. The accused used a combination of misinformation, deception and threats to maintain control over the scheme causing huge financial losses to the victims, police said.
Over a thousand police personnel have also fallen victim to the fraud.
While a majority of them were duped of crores of rupees, some of them made huge gains by creating chains by roping in more investors and opted for voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), and became its promoters, police said.
“The kingpin of the scam, Subhash Sharma from Sarkaghat in Himachal’s Mandi district, is still at large and probably hiding in the UAE. Efforts are underway to bring him back,” a police officer said.
The SIT investigations have also revealed that the kingpin and other key accused invested in plots and flats in Himachal, Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana, besides buying luxury items and high-end cars, and even indulged in tax evasion.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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