The retired officer, a former director general of a central government department, lodged a police complaint in March, saying he fell for a trading fraud on a website—Lextrade—that initially gave him handsome returns but went south weeks later.
Reeta Yadav, in charge of the Cyber Crime police station, said the accused lured him with the promise of doubling his investments.
“To gain his trust, the fraudsters also transferred Rs 15 lakh to his bank account in installments, after which he started investing more. But later he did not get any returns on his ‘investment’ and ended up losing Rs 2.5 crore,” said Yadav.
Police caught Vijay Sharma (56), Hemant Singharia (30), and Tarun Kashyap from Paschim Vihar, Delhi. All three are Delhi residents.
“Investigation found that the gang had taken some shops in Delhi on rent and registered fake firms on the shop addresses. They then opened bank accounts in the name of the firms. When we investigated the GST numbers of the firms, we found 15 to 20 bank accounts linked to them. Over the last two years, the accused had opened 150 firms,” Yadav said.
The officer said Vijay received Rs 1 lakh for every account he created. “He received with Rs 1 lakh from the main accused, who accessed the bank accounts from Dubai. We are yet to identify him. Vijay shared the money with Hemant and Tarun. We have booked the three accused under charges of cheating, forgery and relevant IT Act sections,” Yadav said.
Police produced the accused before the court on Tuesday and sent them to judicial custody. Further investigation is underway.