Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing on Friday arrested the prime accused in an online fraud case. The accused Prince Kumar of Muzaffarpur in Bihar is the Director of M/s Digital Revolution Technologies Limited.
He was nabbed by the EOW from Mathura in connection with a case registered on March 14, and booked under Sections 406, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC, 66 of the IT Act, Section 4, 5 and 6 of Prize Chits & Money Circulation Scheme (Banning) Act, and Section 6 of Odisha Protection of Interests of Depositors (in Financial Establishment) Act.
The arrested accused was produced before the Court of CJM, Mathura and is being brought to Odisha. The case has been registered on the basis of an enquiry report relating to the allegation that from March 2020 onwards Prince Kumar/ his company duped hundreds of investors across Odisha giving false assurances of high returns under its different schemes involving various digital/online products. They also issued forged documents and misappropriated the invested amount of around Rs 1.5 Crore from Odisha investors/victims alone.
However the duped money may go far higher as this company has investors/ victims spread in many states especially in Maharashtra, Bihar, UP, Delhi, west Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh etc. The company collected huge money from investors assuring them very high returns and misleading them that this company is running successful Desi/ Indian version of Whatsapp, YouTube, Amazon, email, online/digital gaming, digital payment, Netflix etc. kind of products. The company named/styled these as following:
1. Shopsubkuch- Ecommerce Website.
2. MYPay- mobile payment platform.
3. MyTube world- App for watching movies etc.
4. Vidscop- video sharing App.
5. Chitthi- sharing messages/ chat. Voice call/ video call etc.
6. GoGame11- Online gaming
During the month of March, 2020, Prince Kumar, Director of Digital Revolution Technologies Limited, conducted meetings at Balasore and Bhadrak, distributed brochures and made wide propaganda to convince the gullible investors that his company wish to strengthen India through digital platforms and information Technologies (IT), and goal of the company is not only business but it is “Your Own Digital Revolution Marketing” (YODRM), which is
committed for digitalization of World. One can earn huge income in a very short period from home by using the mobile applications of this company (GHAR BETHE HI DESH KA DIGITAL USE KARKE SHANDAR INCOME LE SEKTE HO), which is solely made in India.
Prince Kumar gave false assurances to the investors that investment amount would be double within one year and could able to induce the investors to invest in the company although the company has no commensurate/ real business activity to pay high returns. However, people were more vulnerable during COVID time as many of them had income-related issues. Besides this Prince Kumar also used glamorous propaganda using websites, YouTube, Facebook etc, an EOW official said.
“The deposit collected by the company under the cover of Direct Digital Marketing is nothing but Ponzi Scheme. The business model of M/s Digital Revolution Technologies Limited is a simple pyramid structure in which the early entrants earn money and as the number of investors/depositors increases, finding more investors (New Comers) to join becomes difficult or impossible and the scheme collapses at a point of time. Investors, those who joined late do not earn enough to cover their first outlay,” the official stated.
