Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of Odisha Police has arrested a chartered accountant in connection with a case pertaining to an online loan scam allegedly run by Chinese fraudsters.
Based on a complaint, the EOW nabbed Neerav Gupta alias Raman, a resident of Gurgaon, in Paschim Vihar area of Delhi on July 30 and booked him under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and IT Act, 2000.
He was brought to Odisha on transit remand on Tuesday after being produced before Tis Hazari Court in New Delhi.
Gupta was traced while an investigating officer was probing an allegation of harassment and extortion by recovery agents of digital loan application ‘Kredit Gold’ who had allegedly sent abusing messages and morphed photographs, EOW said in a statement.
Complainant Sakti Prasad Dash, after downloading the loan application, received Rs 9,000 as instant loan but only after four days, got WhatsApp messages and calls asking him to pay back Rs 15,627, it said.
He then received several calls and messages from different mobile phone numbers which were traced to a firm, whose director Nitin Malik was arrested and is presently in jail.
Based on interrogation of Malik, Gupta was nabbed.
“Gupta opened several shell companies for use by Chinese nationals to facilitate cash transactions related to digital lending applications. In return, he received huge sums of money as commission from the Chinese via Malik,” EOW said.
Gupta also opened one-person companies for use by the Chinese for duping people.
“The accused, Neerav Gupta, had received Rs 30 lakh from the Chinese for the operations that included not only registering the shell companies but also arranging directors of these firms at a nominal salary. It is suspected that at least 10 such companies have been set up,” the statement said.
The EOW said that the ‘Kredit Gold’ application alone has been downloaded over 1 lakh times.
There might be lakhs of duped people from across the country, including Odisha, if all the 10 applications are accounted for, it said.
A laptop, two mobile phones, 11 seals of shell companies, five digital signature certificate tokens, four cheque books of shell companies were among the incriminating materials seized from Gupta’s possession, the EOW statement said.
“The accused was working for Chinese nationals and had regular contacts with them. He is also wanted by different law enforcement agencies across India,” it said.
The EOW urged people not to take loans from unregistered or illegal loan applications that can hack mobile phones of customers on the pretext of advancing loans and use those later for perpetrating other financial crimes.
PTI