Odisha police arrest cyber fraudster in ₹16 lakh scam
Published By : Pradip Subudhi
| September 1, 2025 5:58 PM
Bhubaneswar, September 1: A 64-year-old man from Balasore has been arrested by Odisha Police for allegedly duping several people of around ₹16 lakh through a fraudulent mobile application that lured users with promises of high investment returns.
The accused, identified as Partha Sarathi Das of Chandipur, Balasore, was taken into custody following a case registered at the Cyber Crime and Economic Offence Police Station, Cuttack. The complaint was filed on August 28 by Mirza Adil Beg (45) of Cuttack’s Dargha Bazar area.
According to the complaint, a mobile app called “Huge App” had been operating for the past two months, allegedly from an office near Badambadi, Cuttack. The app required a registration fee of ₹16,500, attracting around 200 people from the complainant’s locality, collectively amounting to a fraud of nearly ₹16 lakh.
The scheme promised lucrative returns for rating videos with five stars and additional commissions for bringing in new members. Initially, some users received payouts, which encouraged more people to invest. However, when investors were expecting their returns on August 15, they were instead asked to deposit an extra ₹4,950 as Annual Maintenance Charges.
Soon after, on August 19, the app became non-functional, leaving the investors cheated. Police investigations revealed Das as the mastermind behind the fraud, leading to his arrest.
