New Delhi, May 22 (PTI) The Delhi Police has busted an illegal forex trading call centre operating from Indore in Madhya Pradesh and arrested six people allegedly involved in duping victims across the country through fake online investment schemes, an official said on Friday.
According to the police, the accused allegedly ran a sophisticated fraud operation using a fake trading platform to lure people into investing in forex and online trading products by showing fabricated profits and trading gains.
Police said the syndicate cheated victims out of around Rs 1 crore by convincing them to invest in gold, silver, Nifty, Bank Nifty, and cryptocurrency-linked assets.
“The operation was unearthed during an investigation into a complaint filed on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP), who alleged that a woman induced him to invest in forex trading,” the officer said.
Police said the victim was repeatedly persuaded to transfer money under various pretexts, including leverage charges, GST, penalties, TDS and account unlocking fees. During the investigation, it was found that the complainant had transferred more than Rs 10.5 lakh into multiple bank accounts allegedly operated by the fraudsters, they said.
“A team carried out technical surveillance, mobile tracking, IMEI analysis and scrutiny of financial transactions before tracing the network to Indore,” the officer said.
Based on inputs and local intelligence, police conducted a raid at the scamster’s place in Indore’s RNT Marg, where they allegedly found a fully operational illegal call centre.
Police said 41 people, including 35 tele-callers, were present at the office and were actively contacting potential victims and persuading them to invest money through the fake trading platform.
The six arrested accused were identified as Kartik Aggarwal, alleged mastermind and owner of the operation; Raja Aggarwal, co-owner of the call centre; and team leaders Harsh Keshre, Nikhil Bhalse, Deepak Umath and Vipin Yadav.
“The syndicate used fake identities, mule bank accounts, fake SIM cards and layered banking channels to evade detection,” the officer said. Police recovered a large digital and financial infrastructure during the raid, including 47 mobile phones, 46 SIM cards, 29 computer systems, 10 cheque books, debit cards, POS swipe machines, routers and a MacBook. Apart from this, cash worth Rs 1.21 lakh, along with foreign currencies including US dollars, Thai baht and UAE dirhams, was also seized.
“The fraud network had developed a highly organised operational model resembling a professional business setup,” the officer added.
Police said customer databases were allegedly purchased through social media channels and online marketplaces, after which telemarketers contacted potential investors posing as trading advisors and investment experts. Victims were initially shown manipulated profits on fake dashboards to gain their trust and encourage larger investments.
The investigation also revealed a new money-laundering pattern in which the cheated funds were routed through multiple mule accounts and later layered through gold loan repayment and top-up mechanisms to conceal the trail of transactions.
“The mastermind, Kartik Aggarwal, had previously worked in brokerage and trading-related firms before entering illegal forex trading operations. Further investigation into the matter is underway,” the officer said. PTI BM KSI KSI
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