Bhubaneswar: The Cyber Police in Bhubaneswar have arrested three individuals, including a salon owner, for an alleged online trading scam.
The accused have been identified as Lala Basantara (21), Manas Kumar Sahu (30) and Chinmaya Sahoo (19), all natives of Reamal in Deogarh district. The trio was apprehended following raids on the basis of a complaint lodged by a resident of Bhubaneswar, whom they cheated of Rs 94 lakh after promising a returns of Rs 2 crore.
Addressing a presser, ACP Suchitra Das on Friday said one of the accused held a bank account used for large-scale fraudulent transactions. The salon owner, Lala Basant, allegedly routed proceeds through a current account, while the third individual acted as a supervisor, overseeing and coordinating all money movements tied to the operation.
Elaborating on their modus operandi, the ACP said that the accused targeted people by sending links or through calls on WhatsApp and Instagram. They posed as
representatives of SEBI-registered financial institutions and added them to multiple WhatsApp groups with promises of high returns through stock trading, share investments and IPOs. The targets were then induced them to invest money through counterfeit versions of mobile trading applications named BOB Caps (BOB Capital Markets Limited, Mumbai) and Chola Pro (Cholamandalam Securities Limited, Chennai), while falsely assuring compliance with SEBI regulations. These applications displayed fabricated trading profits to create an illusion of genuine market activity.
The complainant had transferred Rs 94,62,461 to multiple third-party bank accounts as instructed by the scammers through UPI, NEFT, and RTGS between September 24 and November 19, 2025. When the victim later tried to withdraw the funds, the fraudsters demanded extra payments, including a 30% “service fee” disguised as taxes and processing costs. Even after making these additional transfers, no withdrawal was permitted. Subsequently, the applications showed the account status as abnormal and all related WhatsApp groups became inactive, raising suspicion of fraud. The victim then reported the matter to the national cyber helpline (1930), which led to the formal registration of the case.
Police seized three mobile phones, one SBI ATM card and one UDYAM Registration Certificate from the accused.