Online gaming fraud racket unearthed in Kharar, 8 held

The police today claimed to have busted a racket involved in large-scale online gaming fraud. Eight persons have been arrested in this regard.

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The suspects are Pankaj Goswami and Gurpreet Singh of Hanumangarh (Rajasthan), Bhaven Kumar Ulke of Nagpur (Maharashtra), Manjeet Singh and Ajay of Tibbi (Rajasthan), Nikhil Kumar of Jaunpur (UP), and Harsh Kumar and Ritesh Majhi of Madhya Pradesh.

They were nabbed during coordinated raids in various residential areas of Kharar, including Koiyaan City Homes, Gillco Valley and Royal Apartments. The police seized five laptops, 51 mobile phones, 70 SIM cards, 127 bank ATM cards and Rs 2,50,000 in the operation.

SSP Harmandeep Singh Hans said the racket was being run from two separate locations in Kharar. The gang lured unsuspecting citizens across India with promises of high returns through online gaming apps and was reported to have defrauded victims of approximately Rs 18 crore.

Cops said the accused operated through the website https://www.allpanelexch.com, falsely promoting it as a platform to play online games and earn high profits. Initially, they lured victims by showing fake demo earnings on WhatsApp and offered attractive incentives to create user IDs. Victims were then directed to log in via a link and persuaded to transfer large sums of money through various accounts under the garb of investing in games.

The police identified the mastermind of the operation as Vijay, who is currently absconding.