A Ballygunge resident lost more than Rs 1 crore that he had invested in schemes proposed to him by fraudsters, who promised high returns against his investments, police said.
Five persons have been arrested from Madhya Pradesh in connection with the case.
The police said two persons contacted the complainant — a resident of Rainey Park — through WhatsApp posing as officials of a private finance company. They allegedly lured him into investing in multiple schemes with promises of high returns.
“The complainant had invested more than Rs 1 crore in at least four different bank accounts across the country. He realised the fraud only when the fraudsters started controlling his bank account with the use of screen-sharing software and took away his rights to withdraw the money. They also refused to share the profits that were earlier promised to him,” said an officer of the anti-bank fraud section of the detective department of Kolkata police.
Five persons — Mohammad Abid, Satyajit Bhowmik, Manish Turkar, Vaphik Khan, and Samsuddin Solanki — all residents of Chhattisgarh, were arrested from Bhopal on February 19.
The accused have been brought to Kolkata on transit remand.
The cops said the investors used to deposit money into the accounts controlled by the fraudsters after being assured of getting a high return on their investment but were duped later.
During the probe, the police traced the internet protocol address (of the devices used by fraudsters) from the banking transactions made by them.
