K'taka police busts Rs 290 cr 'Power Bank' scam with suspected links to Chinese 'hawala' operators
Bengaluru, Jun 12: Karnataka police on Saturday said they have busted a Rs 290 crore plus scam that involved duping people through a mobile app after promising attractive interest on investment and two Chinese nationals were among the nine arrested.
The scam, aided by shell companies, is linked to money laundering and the suspected kingpin is a Kerala based business man with proximity to Chinese 'hawala' operators, they said.
Cyber Crime Division of CID said it has arrested accused persons, including two Chinese nationals, two Tibetans and five others acting as directors of the companies involved, and a search is on for the rest.
A complaint from Razor pay Software Private Limited said accused persons availed 'payment solutions' from them, claiming that they are in gaming, social and e-commerce businesses.
They, however, defrauded the company by using computer resources and by deviating from their original, registered line of business, the plaint said.
They started routing their transactions to collect payments from a different business named "Powerbank", an app listed in Google Playstore, cyber police said in a release.
Through customer complaints, the complainant company got to know that public invested money in the "Powerbank" app to earn interest on the invested amount.
The accused persons, after accepting the investments, neither gave the agreed interest nor the principal amount and cheated customers.
A case was registered under the Information Technology Act and 420 IPC (Cheating), the CCD said and added that the investigating team were successful in arresting nine men.
During investigation, it was found that Anas Ahmed, a Kerala based businessman, is the main person involved.
"We have also identified that he has very proximate connections with the Chinese hawala operators, which has come to light during the course of the investigation.
He had opened shell companies in the name of Bull Finch Technologies, H & S ventures and Clifford ventures to route the fraud money. Anas Ahamed is married to Chinese national and incidentally he did his studies in China," police said in the release.
Online applications hosted by him were later camouflaged and converted into different apps including Power Bank application, seeking investment from the public and promising good returns, the CCD said.
An unusual spike was seen in investments on the day Anees Ahmed announced much higher returns.
Subsequently, such apps were removed from Google Playstore and other websites and he absconded with the money.
Investigation showed Rs 290 crore inflow into his bank accounts and the CCD was successful in freezing a significant portion of it. There was a huge spike in opening of shell companies since November 2020.
"We have also observed that the Chinese handlers are in possession of a huge number of shell companies and bank accounts. Lured by the offer of the Chinese nationals, many innocent Indians and Tibetans have fallen in their trap to open shell companies and open bank accounts for them."
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Kasaragod: Government Medical College gets first MBBS student from Rajasthan
Kasaragod: The Government Medical College, which recently secured the National Medical Commission’s approval, admitted its first MBBS student on Monday, with Gurwinder Singh from Alwar in Rajasthan becoming the first of the 50 students in the inaugural batch of the College.
Singh received a warm welcome into the College with sweets by Principal-in-Charge Dr. KK Santosh Kumar and Medical Superintendent Dr Praveen. The admission procedure was formally completed with the recording of his attendance, reports On Manorama.
The College has seven seats reserved for candidates from the All-India rank list, and Singh qualified for a seat in the College under the All-India Medical Entrance quota.
Unlike the other government medical colleges in the state, where classes started this week after the admission of students during the first round of counseling, the Kasaragod Medical College had to wait for approval from the National Medical Commission. The College received the approval and began enrolling students after conclusion of counseling.
The classes will begin on September 30, after completion of Phase 2 of allotment. The first batch students are currently provided temporary hostel facilities at Cherkkala.
While the second student under the All-India rank list is expected to join the College today, the authorities have said they cannot guarantee how long the new students will remain, adding that some students may opt to move to other colleges if they are allotted seats there.
