The racket allegedly extensively used cryptocurrency to hide their illegal activities and for laundering of cheated funds to different foreign countries which prompted the cops, for the sake of investigation, to file a separate case at Barrackpore cyber crime police station was initiated on November 5 last year.
Kolkata: The West Bengal police arrested industrialist Pawan Ruia for allegedly running in inter-state cyber fraud racket, involving cryptocurrency, on Tuesday, hours after the Calcutta High Court revoked the protection granted to him and his family in the case. He was caught in front of a hotel opposite Eco Park in New Town at around 4.45 pm.
Later, the cops raided Ruia's residence and office and his relatives’ addresses in the case which was estimated to be around ₹350 crore.
The case was registered against Ruia on April 3, 2024, by the Bidhannagar cybercrime police station following a complaint filed by an aged resident, Swapan Kumar Mondal, of Eco Park. Mondal alleged in his complaint that he was defrauded after installing a mobile application (KKRMF.apk) in his cellphone and was cheated of ₹93 lakh with a false promise of huge return on investment.
Prima facie, the amount was siphoned through many shell companies’ corporate current bank accounts which were operated under the direction of Ruia from the Ruia Centre at Syed Amir Ali Avenue in Ballygunge. Further probe found that according to the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, 1,379 cyber frauds were connected to Ruia and his associates.
The racket allegedly extensively used cryptocurrency to hide their illegal activities and for laundering of cheated funds to different foreign countries which prompted the cops, for the sake of investigation, to file a separate case at Barrackpore cyber crime police station was initiated on November 5 last year.
