Nagpur: A 52-year-old software engineer from Nagpur was allegedly cheated of ₹13.25 lakh by a fraudster who posed as a SEBI-registered stock market investment adviser and lured him with promises of high returns. The Cyber Police have registered a case in connection with the fraud, while the accused is yet to be arrested.

According to the complaint, the victim, identified as Dhananjay Chandrashekar Rokade, is a software engineer and operates an office of I Manage Digital Services in Nagpur. The alleged fraud came to light after he received a call from mobile number 8980785529.

The caller allegedly introduced himself as Kaushik Patni and asked the victim whether he was interested in investing money in trading. Initially, the victim declined the offer.

However, the caller allegedly contacted him repeatedly and provided information about stock market trading. He also claimed to be a SEBI-registered investment adviser and said that he possessed the necessary licence to provide stock market advisory and brokerage-related services.

The claims allegedly convinced the software engineer, following which he transferred ₹13,25,880 to the accused for investment purposes.

The accused allegedly failed to provide any returns on the investment and subsequently cheated the victim of the entire amount. After realising that he had been defrauded, the victim approached the Cyber Police and lodged a complaint.

Based on the complaint, the Cyber Police registered a case under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including Sections 318(4), 319(2) and 351(3), along with Section 66(d) of the Information Technology Act and provisions corresponding to cheating and criminal intimidation.

The accused has not been arrested so far. Police are investigating the mobile number used in the alleged fraud and the flow of the money transferred by the victim.