The accused have been identified as Ezhil Raja(32), a native of Ilapillai Perumal Goundanpatti in Salem, Muthuraj (32) of Kadayanallur Thalaivankottai in Tenkasi district and Balasubramaniyam (27) of Vellakkal in Tenkasi district.
The Nilgiris: An unknown person has sent a website address link on the Instagram account of a tea export company owner from Coonoor in the Nilgiris district. Clicking on this link, it promised to double the money after fulfilling some of the tasks in it .
Believing this, the owner of the tea export company initially invested Rs. 100 in the desire to earn extra money. When the money doubled, he invested Rs 1,000 thereafter. The thousands later turned into lakhs.
He said that the double amount of money invested by him was not brought directly to his bank account but in another account online. The fraudsters have also told him that they can transfer it from that account to your bank account as and when required.
Believing this, he invested Rs 40 lakh in another account without receiving money from his bank account, thinking that his amount would be doubled. In the end, he came to know that a lot of money had gone out of hand.
Following this, he asked him to transfer the amount to his bank account. But they said they cannot do so and if you invest extra money, they will transfer the entire amount to the bank account.
Thus, in a month's time in September last year, he was duped of Rs 92 lakh. But he did not get his money back. They could not be contacted after this. Realising that he had been cheated in the end, the tea export owner lodged a complaint at the Ooty Cyber Crime Police Station.
On the orders of District Superintendent of Police Ashish Rawat, a special team led by Additional Superintendent of Police Mohan Niwas and inspector Philip formed a special team to investigate the matter.
During the investigation, it was revealed that the fraudsters were in Warangal, Thoothukudi and Tenkasi areas of Telangana and had formed a team for the network. Following this, the Special Task Force (STF) conducted searches at various places including Warangal, Thoothukudi and Salem and arrested three persons involved in the incidents.
The accused have been identified as Ezhil Raja(32), a native of Ilapillai Perumal Goundanpatti in Salem, Muthuraj (32) of Kadayanallur Thalaivankottai in Tenkasi district and Balasubramaniyam (27) of Vellakkal in Tenkasi district.
Ezhil Raja was arrested in Coimbatore, while Balasubramaniyam and Muthuraj were arrested in Thoothukudi. Thereafter, they were brought to Ooty in the Nilgiris district. After the hearing, the police produced the three before Coonoor Court Judge Isaki Mahesh Kumar and lodged them in Coonoor jail.