Retired Top Forest Officer Duped of ₹6.8 Crore in Shocking Online Stock Scam
Chennai(The Uttam Hindu): The Cybercrime Wing of the Greater Chennai Police has taken three men from Kerala into custody for their involvement in a sophisticated online investment scam that swindled a retired Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer out of a staggering Rs 6.8 crore.
The victim, Krishnan Kumar Kaushal, who is 60 years old and hails from Himachal Pradesh, served as an IFS officer from the 1990 batch and retired as the Tamil Nadu Principal Chief Conservator of Forests in July 2024. In a complaint he filed two months ago, he revealed that he lost not just his life savings but also his retirement benefits and the money from selling his house after being lured in by deceptive investment apps. The three men arrested have been named as Sreejith R. Nair (47) from Ernakulam, Abdulsalu (47) from Kozhikode, and Mohammed Farwaiz (44) from Malappuram. They were brought to Chennai under a transit warrant and are now in judicial custody.
According to police, Krishnan Kumar received WhatsApp messages in December 2024, prompting him to download two bogus investment apps -- SMC Apex and Shanda Capital. These apps were promoted by so-called customer service executives who assured him of high returns. Between January and late January 2025, he transferred approximately Rs 6.58 crore to multiple bank accounts linked to the scammers, believing he was investing in legitimate stock market ventures. However, he soon became suspicious when he noticed discrepancies.
“The value of the shares shown in the app increased daily, but when cross-verified with official stock exchange data (NSE and BSE), the figures did not match,” he noted in his complaint. Upon realising he had been duped, Kaushal reported the matter to the national cybercrime helpline (1930) and filed a complaint with the Chennai Police’s Cybercrime Wing. A special team led by Inspector Peer Basha traced the fraudulent bank accounts to Kerala.
The investigation revealed that the arrested trio had been operating bank accounts on behalf of cyber fraudsters. The scammed money was routed abroad through illegal hawala networks and later converted into USDT cryptocurrency via the Binance trading app.
Police said five other individuals from Delhi and surrounding regions had previously been arrested in connection with the case. However, the three accused from Kerala played a key role in laundering the money through crypto transactions. A senior police officer added, “The accused are suspected to be involved in similar scams reported in other parts of Tamil Nadu and across various states.”