Assam: CBI to take over investigation into online stock trading scam in state

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will officially take over the 41 cases registered in the online stock trading scam that rocked the state some time back.

The scam involves firms that lured people to invest huge amounts of money by promising high returns on their investments from stock trading. The promoters later disappeared with the money said to be in hundreds of crores.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma took to X to announce this, saying, “To ensure a fair investigation on the online stock trading scam, we requested Govt of India to formally hand over all 41 registered cases to the CBI. CBI is officially taking over this matter and we’ll extend all possible support to ensure that justice is served at the earliest.”

The Assam cabinet in September decided to transfer 32 cases registered till then in connection with the online trading scam to the CBI for investigation.

The online trading scam in the state came to light towards the end of August when investors, who had put in huge amounts of money in Deepankar Barman’s company, lodged complaints that he had not been paying them the returns on their investments as promised. His office is said to have been closed since August 21, and he is on the run from the law at present.

Upon investigation, it emerged that the promoters of several fraudulent firms, including Vishal Phukan, allegedly raised hundreds of crores of rupees from people across the state on the promise that they would get huge returns from their investments. The firms, spread across the state, were supposedly investing in the stock markets. Vishal Phukan landed in the net of the police, and he has been arrested, along with his ‘sister’ Sumi Bora and her husband Tarkik Bora. Vishal allegedly spent crores of rupees in the destination marriage of Sumi and Tarkik at Udaipur.

Based on their investigation, the Assam police arrested over 60 individuals in connection with the fraudulent trading scam and constituted 14 Special Investigation Teams (SITs) under the supervision of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Assam.

Also Read: Assam: Sumi & Tarkik Borah arrested by STF in online stock trading scam (sentinelassam.com)

Also watch: