36-year-old held for cheating man on pretext of investing in cryptocurrency

New Delhi: The police have arrested a 36-year-old man for allegedly duping a person of Rs 17 lakh on the pretext of investing in cryptocurrency, officials said on Monday.

The accused has been identified as Sarik Naseem, a resident of Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh, they said.

On October 10, police received a complaint in which it was alleged that the victim had been cheated of Rs 17 lakh on the pretext of investing in Bitcoin, a senior police officer said.

During the investigation, police analysed the bank account statement of the victim and coordinated with officials of the bank where the cheated money was transferred and frozen to the beneficiary account, Deputy Commissioner of Police (south) Chandan Chowdhary said.

The location of the accused was later narrowed down to the Aligarh area from where the amount was withdrawn from an ATM. A raid was conducted and Naseem was arrested, the DCP said.

Police said Rs 3,84,897 was frozen in the bank accounts. Five debit cards and two chequebooks of different banks were recovered from him, police said.

He disclosed that he also provided bank account details and access to mobile banking apps to a person and his associates on a commission basis.