Surat: A WhatsApp group promising quick gains in share trading cost a Surat man Rs 26 lakh and led police to a wider fraud network. Cybercrime police arrested five men from Odisha after tracing the money trail to bank accounts linked to a fake firm. Officers said the accounts had already drawn 149 complaints on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, with alleged fraud adding up to Rs 6.53 crore.Police also found FIRs linked to the accused in states including Karnataka and West Bengal.Cybercrime ACP Sweta Daniels said the complainant was added to a WhatsApp group that promised high returns through share investment. “The victim was lured with good profit. After he transferred a substantial amount, he was denied withdrawal,” she told TOI.Daniels said the probe led police to a gang involving three Odisha natives and two West Bengal natives. “The accused had created a fake firm named RRK PublicBazzar Pvt Ltd and opened a joint bank account. They would receive fraud money in this account,” she said.The accused — Ranjan Khilari, Krushna Kumbhar, Subhashchandra Raulo, S K Alamgir, and Basant Singh — were produced in court and remanded to one-day police custody.
