Hyderabad: A 69-year-old retired defence scientist, formerly a project director at the Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL) and the BrahMos supersonic missile project, was defrauded of Rs 2.8 crore by cybercriminals. The scammers posed as high-profile investment advisors to lure him into a fraudulent “collective share-purchasing scheme.”The victim, a resident of Himayatnagar, began receiving unsolicited WhatsApp messages in Nov 2025 from three individuals identifying themselves as Hemang Mehta, Harnish Mahesh Shukla , and Gauri Anand. Claiming to be authorized agents, they promised extraordinary returns of up to 1,200% through discounted block deals, pre-IPO placements and private equity opportunitiesThe victim was instructed to install an app named ‘IndiaBoltPlus’ via a link provided by the accused. Between Nov 5 and Dec 24, the former scientist transferred a total of Rs 2.82 crore through 13 transactions to various bank accounts provided by the fraudsters.The ‘IndiaBoltPlus’ app displayed a fake dashboard showing his investment had grown to Rs 40 crore. When the victim sought to withdraw Rs 60 lakh to settle personal loans, the request was blocked and he was told to withdraw the entire corpus instead. The operators then demanded an additional Rs 1.75 crore as a “commission” to release the funds.“An independent check revealed that IndiaBoltPlus app had no link to investment services company and the names used by the fraudsters were aliases,” the retired defence scientist told police.He filed a complaint with the Hyderabad Cyber Crime Police. A case was registered on Monday under under sections 66C and 66D of the IT Act and sections 111(2)(b) (organised crime), 318(4) (cheating), 319(2) (cheating by personation), 336(3) (forgery for cheating), 338 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc) and 340(2) (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) of the BNS.Police have launched an investigation to trace the bank accounts and digital footprints of the suspects.
