An IIT Kanpur student named Shubransh Nayak and several of his friends were detained by Naupada police after evidence emerged they were involved in a crypto fraud scheme.
Naupada Police Investigate Crypto Scam
A police report issued the following statement:
The initial complaint is of ₹2.5 lakh, but the scam could burgeon to several crores since we are expecting more complainants to approach us.
The trouble began when Sushil Kangya and several other residents of the Naupada area began sending complaints to police authorities saying they had been victimized by the crypto companies Dronx.Biz and BNB Pool. The residents said they had lost money to assorted scammers and needed help in retrieving their funds back.
Kangya said he and his sister were approached by Nayak and his associate Pankaj Pandhi and were offered a chance to invest in a crypto platform that would ultimately grant them eight percent in returns each day. They were also told these returns would increase if more people chose to get involved in the scheme.
This should have been a huge red flag for the parties in question given that crypto returns can never be guaranteed. Thus, it’s impossible to assume that one will – for sure – get any sort of specific funds back when they invest in the industry given how volatile and speculative it can be.
Kangya explained:
Initially, we invested ₹ 2.5 lakhs and got returns for a few months. Later, the returns stopped. When we asked Shubhransh and Pankaj about non-payment of the returns, they showed us a few videos of the prime minister allegedly promoting the organizations and that the companies were genuine.
There were several allegedly phony promotions about the company saying that it had the support of India’s prime ministry and various government members, but these have not been verified. Kangya continued with:
When we realized that it was a scam, we asked for the refund of our money, but we were threatened with dire consequences.
Sanjay Dhumal – the senior police inspector at the Naupada police station who’s been investigating the case – said:
We received the letter from complainant Sushil Kangya against two companies named DRONX BIZ and DRONX BNB Pool which are into MLM and [were] involved in a cryptocurrency scam. The names of people running it are Rajesh Bapodra, a diamond merchant who lives in Kandivali; Krish Reddy, alias Phanni Beejam from Hyderabad; Shubhransh Nayak; Dr. Peter Dhanraj; Avinash Upadhyay; and Pankaj Pandhi. Based on the complaint lodged by Kangya, we have detained them for [an] investigation. As of now, no FIR has been registered against them.
So Many Crypto Problems!
Crypto crime has become rather rampant in the past few years.
Scams like these are also particularly common and often take on the form of romantic partners looking for dates.
