THE Solapur City police in Maharashtra has launched a probe into a suspected large-scale racket in which several people were cheated on the pretext of getting high returns on an investment on a cryptocurrency cloud-mining application.
Till now, the police have been approached by as many as 30 persons who claim to have been cheated to the tune of Rs 41 lakh which they were made to invest in a cloud-mining application by the suspects. Investigators believe that the number of people from Solapur who have been cheated this way could run into hundreds with the total amount involved running into crores.
Police have launched a search for three persons, including a woman, who own a jewelry shop in Solapur and are suspected to have scammed people, many of whom took loans to recover the investment amount.
An FIR was registered at Faujdar Chawadi Police station in Solapur on Tuesday by a 31-year-old car accessories businessman who claimed he had invested around Rs 4.2 lakh in the scheme. A police official said that over the last few weeks, the suspects approached many people and made them invest money. They made their investors bring in more investors and offered commissions for it, the officer added. “People have been cheated on a large scale,” the officer said. The investors started to approach the police after the office from where the suspects were operating suddenly closed down two days ago.
Solapur City Commissioner of Police Rajendra Mane said, “Till now, 30 people who have been cheated have approached us. Prima facie, a larger number of people have been duped. A probe is being conducted in the case.”