An RTO agent of the North division of the Mumbai police’s Crime branch has been arrested for allegedly duping a Mumbai citizen into investing Rs 16.31 lakh in an online fake share trading platform.
Sheikh, a resident of Tulsiwadi in Tardeo, was arrested on May 29 in the investigation of a cyber fraud case with the Cyber Police Station, North Division.
Police said the complainant, 49-year-old Rizwan Abdul Rehman Sheikh, faces charges for being talked to by fraudsters on social media between February and April 2026. The scammers supposedly had high promises on investing in the stock market and sent him to a group on WhatsApp, “C262-Kotak Strategic Consensus.”
As investment advisors, the scammers shared a link to an app for mobile devices and an imposter trading website. It is claimed that they presented cooked-up profits on the pretense that other investors were making huge investments in shares and were earning a huge sum through share trading.
The complainant thought that at the time the money was transferred to several bank accounts given by the fraudsters and associates. Overall, the victim had invested a total of Rs. 16.31 lakh in the period between March and April 2026, police said.
The fraud was discovered when the complainant tried to withdraw his “profits. It was alleged that the accused wanted more money because of money laundering concerns that his account had been blocked. The victim complained against the same through the cyber helpline 1930, suspecting the ruse.
In the course of the investigation, cyber police followed the money trail and discovered that the Rs 8 lakh transferred on April 10 was the money soon diverted to a number of other accounts. Investigators also found Rs 4 lakh of the defrauded money had been deposited into a bank account, and after a few days, they were withdrawn from the account in cash.
Police are still working the case to determine who was the brain behind the bogus trading platform and other “citizen helpers” who also participated in the fraud.