Central Crime Branch (CCB) officials on Monday busted a cryptocurrency racket and arrested four persons, who had allegedly collected crores of rupees from investors in one year offering higher returns for the purchase of helium crypto tokens, and then escaped with the investment money.
Based on a complaint, a team of officials, led by DCP S.D. Sharanappa, tracked down the accused and arrested them. The police have recovered ₹17 crore worth of valuables and also seized several mobile phones and laptops from the accused to ascertain their network and operations.
According to the police, the racket started during the pandemic in 2021 when the accused launched Sharehash app and started approaching people on WhatsApp and via messages, offering to sell helium crypto tokens. They offered higher returns.
The accused had even lured investors to sell crypto mining machines which they could use to monitor the price and get alerts to receive mining rewards.
The accused opened five different companies in and around the country to receive the deposits to the company’s account. After receiving maximum deposits from thousands of investors, the accused withdrew the app from the Google Playstore stating that they will upgrade the app and release it soon, and then escaped, officials said.
The cyber crime police are probing further with 44 bank account details belonging to the accused. Lauding the CCB’s efforts in cracking the case, City Police Commissioner Kamal Pant announced a reward of ₹70,000 for the team.
