Two persons have been arrested in two separate cases of investment scams unearthed by the Malkajgiri Police Cyber Crime Cell during the week of May 3 to May 9.
In the first case, Roumya Ranjan Panda, a resident of Bishnupur in Odisha’s Baleswar district, was arrested for providing bank accounts on commission to cyber fraudsters for facilitating transfer of defrauded money.
The case dates back to September 2025 when the complainant was defrauded through a bitcoin trading scam on hodlhodl.com and WhatsApp after the fraudsters promised high returns and gradually induced investments. Investigators said the victim initially lost ₹9.28 lakh.
In March 2026, another accused posing as ‘Vishal’ from Odisha accessed the Gmail account of the complainant, closed his cybercrime complaint using forged documents and along with another impersonator identified as ‘Roumya Ranjan Panda’ extorted more money through fake FIRs, court orders and WhatsApp groups. Police said the complainant ended up losing ₹34.48 million after recovering only ₹9.71 million.
In the second case, Autukuri Santosh Kumar from Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh was arrested.
The complainant in the case was added to WhatsApp groups named ‘Stock Market Think Tank-IV’ and ‘Free Service Group-1160’ run by a person identified as Rakshita Ved using multiple numbers. The group admins shared stock tips and fake profit images to gain the victim’s trust before convincing them to install the “FISD PRO” app and complete the KYC formalities. Investigators said the victim was initially allowed a small withdrawal to build confidence and later invested ₹41.62 crore while the app falsely displayed profits of ₹3.76 crore. When the complainant tried to withdraw ₹20 lakh, the customer support demanded a 20% commission, thus exposing the fraud. The victim ended up losing ₹41.56 crore and only ₹6,000 was recovered.
The Cybercrime Police said refunds of ₹4.31 lakh were processed through court orders and returned to victims within a week. Officials also warned citizens against investment offers received through WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram and advised the public not to download or invest through unknown apps or websites.
Published – 09 May 2026 19:53 IST
