Two teenagers from Bihar have been arrested for allegedly duping a New Town resident out of nearly ₹19 lakh with false promises of getting her high returns against investments advertised through a group in Telegram.

Police identified the teens as Bihari Prasad Singh, 19, and Bipin Kumar, 19. They were produced at a court in Bihar and brought to the city on transit remand.

Soni Chowdhury, in her complaint, said she had received an invite on WhatsApp to join a Telegram group.

The group members regularly advertised investment opportunities and schemes that promised to double or triple the amount invested.

“The group members managed to lure the complainant by promising high returns. She transferred ₹18.66 lakh in instalments to account numbers provided by the group members,” said a senior officer of the Bidhannagar Commissionerate.

To make the schemes seem credible and win the complainant’s trust, forged certificates of the investments made were sent to Chowdhury. Fake documents stating the amount fetched by her investment were also sent to her at regular intervals, the
officer added.

The officer on Monday told Metro that the two arrested teens were part of an inter-state racket that has duped many by luring them with fictitious investment schemes.

“They would mainly use WhatsApp and Telegram to dupe people,” said the
officer.

The police are still trying to trace all the accounts where the money has been parked.

The two were caught after cops managed to track them down after constant surveillance on the phone numbers used in the crime.