Assam Cabinet decides to hand over all 32 online trading fraud cases to CBI

“The Cabinet has decided that all 32 cases of fraudulent transactions in the name of share trading registered in the last few days, which resulted in many people losing their money to illegal operators who spent these amounts on themselves, will be reported to the CBI,” Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

Sarma said he had told Indian Home Minister Amit Shah about the scam during a meeting with him in Delhi earlier this week, and Shah had also suggested that the cases be handed over to the CBI.

“The process of handing over the cases to the central agency will take about a month. Till then, the Assam Police will continue its investigation. We hope that the CBI will take over the cases soon. The Cabinet has also decided that if any more such cases are detected in future, they will also be handed over to the central agency,” Sarma said.

The entire scam, involving various people operating individually across Assam and promising huge returns on money invested in online stock trading, had come to light last month after a person named Dipankar Barman disappeared after stealing an estimated sum of ₹7,000 crore from investors. The police are not on his trail yet.

Complaints from investors in this and several other cases prompted the police to hand over the investigation to the CID, which formed a special task force (STF), registered 32 cases and arrested at least 60 people in the last two weeks. It is estimated that these accused have cheated people of several thousand crores of rupees.

One of the most prominent arrests was that of a 22-year-old named Bishal Phukan in Dibrugarh. He is said to have looted large sums of money from doctors, actors, singers and others and spent them on himself and his loved ones.

Phukan, who is currently in police custody, is said to have spent crores of rupees on a wedding in Rajasthan, expensive gifts – including luxury cars – and foreign trips of actress, choreographer and social media influencer Sumi Bora, whom he addressed as her sister.

Borah, who is said to have abused her influence to attract investors, and her husband, photographer Tarkik Bora, had disappeared after Phukan’s arrest. They were nabbed by police on Thursday after a 10-day manhunt. They are now in police custody.