Mumbai woman loses Rs 40 lakh in ‘crypto firm’, says Bollywood singer’s presence influenced her

A Mumbai woman, who was allegedly cheated out of Rs 40 lakh by two men who promised her hefty profits by investing the money in their cryptocurrency company, complained to police that she was encouraged to invest after seeing the veteran Bollywood singer. Kumar Sanu at one of the company’s Zoom meetings, officials said.

The 33-year-old complainant said that the accused told her that the singer had also invested his money in his company. The woman, however, has not charged the singer with any wrongdoing in an FIR filed on the matter, police said. He tried to contact Sanu by phone and through social media, but has so far been unable to get a response.

The woman approached the Kasturba Marg Police Station on June 22 this year and an FIR was subsequently registered for criminal deception and breach of trust under IPC sections 420 and 406 against two people from Kolkata named Deepu Sahu and Biman. Yes, the police said. The woman and her husband run a medical supply company and Sahu is one of her clients, officials added.

The woman alleged in her complaint that on April 10 of this year, Sahu lured her by phone to invest in cryptocurrencies. The second defendant, Das, allegedly told him that his company is based in Melbourne, Australia, and that he will earn 1.5% daily interest on an investment of Rs 50 lakh. She even attended a meeting where the two of them were present along with three foreign nationals. They told him that they had launched two cryptocurrencies on the market with investments worth Rs 6 billion.

At the second Zoom meeting he attended, Kumar Sanu was reportedly present along with the others but sat quietly, he said. They invited her to Sanu’s show in Calcutta on April 17, where they would talk about his business venture, the complainant said.

The woman told the police that she did not attend the show but was influenced by the singer’s presence and invested Rs 40.44 lakh but never got any interest for it. The defendant first tried to get her to invest another 6 lakh rupees, but he gradually stopped taking her calls and eventually told her that she would not get the money back from her, prompting her to approach the police, according to the complaint.