Nagpur Businessman Duped Of Rs 58 Crore In Online Gambling Scam
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During the raid on Saturday, the cops recovered Rs 14 crore in cash along with four kg of gold biscuits from the accused person's residence, identified as Anant alias Sontu Navratan Jain.
Nagpur: An incident of online fraud has emerged from Maharashtra’s Nagpur city, where a businessman lost Rs 58 crore in online gambling. The police initiated an investigation following the complaint from the victim and raided the residence of a suspected bookie in Gondia City, located 160 km away from Nagpur.
Maharashtra | A Gondia-based international cricket bookie lured a businessman to invest in doctored betting apps and then duped him to the tune of over Rs 58 crores. Nagpur Police raided his residence at Kaka Chowk and seized more than Rs 17 crores in cash, gold weighing around 4… pic.twitter.com/xr3dTTMPM0
Accused Escaped To Dubai
During the raid on Saturday, the cops recovered Rs 14 crore in cash along with four kg of gold biscuits from the accused person’s residence, identified as Anant alias Sontu Navratan Jain. However, Anant managed to flee before the raid. According to the police, the accused has escaped to Dubai.
How The Businessman Got Duped
“Prima facie, Jain had convinced the complainant- a businessman- to explore online gambling as a lucrative avenue for earning profits. Initially hesitant, the businessman eventually succumbed to Jain’s persuasion and transferred ₹ 8 lakh through a hawala merchant,” said Nagpur Commissioner of Police Amitesh Kumar.
Kumar further informed that the accused lured the businessman of high profit and WatchApp him a link to open an online gambling account. The businessman found Rs 8 lakh deposited in the account and he began gambling.
“After initial success, the businessman’s fortunes took a drastic downturn as he lost a whopping ₹ 58 crore while winning around ₹ 5 crore,” the police commissioner said.
The Suspicious
The businessman grew suspicious after continuously losing and demanded his money back, but Jain refused.
“The businessman lodged a complaint with the cyber police, leading to the registration of a case of fraud under the Indian Penal Code. Police raided Jain’s residence in Gondia. The operation resulted in the seizure of a substantial amount of evidence, including ₹ 14 crore cash and four kg gold biscuits,” Kumar added.
However, officials are still counting the large quantity of cash and the final figure of seizure is yet to be arrived at.
Not The First Online Fraud Incident In Nagpur
On Friday, a police official reported another case of online fraud, where a resident of Nagpur lost Rs 9.66 lakh. An unidentified person, posing as a bank staffer, managed to withdraw the money. The incident occurred on July 19 when Satish Dixit (56), a resident of Hudkeshwar, received a call from an individual claiming to be a private bank employee, who purportedly offered to safeguard account holders from cyber fraud.
There has been a drastic increase in online frauds following the rise in popularity of UPI payments and online gaming. People are advised not to share their bank account details with anyone and to regularly change their online banking password in order to stay safe.
