The Kannur City cyber police arrested two persons from Chennai for allegedly cheating a Mattanur-based doctor of ₹4.43 crore through a fake online share trading scheme. The arrested are Mahabubash Farooq, 39, and Rijas, 41.
According to police, the accused contacted the complainant via WhatsApp, luring him with promises of high returns through a “wealth profit plan of a company named Upstox”. Convinced through a WhatsApp group run by the duo, the doctor transferred the money into multiple bank accounts as instructed. A fake trading app displayed huge profits after each investment, but when the doctor tried to withdraw funds, he was repeatedly blocked under the pretext of technical issues.
Investigators found that around ₹40 lakh of the defrauded amount had been credited to an account managed by the accused, with withdrawals made via ATM and the rest transferred to other accounts through internet banking.
The arrests followed an investigation led by District Police Chief P. Nidhinraj, on the instruction of Additional SP Sajesh Vazhalappal and under the supervision of Cyber Crime police inspector Mahesh Kandambet. A special team traced the accused using bank account details, phone call records and IMEI numbers. They were taken into custody by another team.
Published – August 10, 2025 06:48 pm IST
