DB Stock Consultancy Fraud: Tens of Thousands of Investors Lost at Least Rs. 4 billion, Two Suspects Arrested

India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) recently arrested two suspects in connection with an online trading scam.

One of the arrested suspects, Deepankar Barman, is the owner of DB Stock Consultancy. Last year, he evaded authorities for nearly four months and was finally arrested in Goa.

The authority accused Barman of defrauding tens of thousands of Indian investors through a massive scam, stealing more than Rs. 4 billion by promising high, fixed investment returns but failing to deliver them to investors.

Police investigations into Barman revealed that two other suspects, Pushpajit Purkayastha and Sandeep Gupta, were also involved in the scam.

Purkayastha worked as a manager at a branch of Axis Bank in Guwahati. The authority found him working with DB Stock Consultancy to cheat money from the public with the lie of high returns.

Purkayastha, in collaboration with Barman, misled bank customers and other investors into investing in the fraudulent scheme, the bureau said. He illegally earned large commissions by soliciting investors for the scheme while facilitating the operation of the scam, causing losses to clients in Guwahati and Mumbai.

Gupta, another key figure in this scam, was an agent of DB Stock. The authority believed that he, along with other suspects, promoted the illegal investment scheme.

Gupta is said to have introduced more than 350 investors to the scheme, earning hundreds of thousands of rupees in commissions.

The Indian authority have charged Barman, his fiancée Monalisha Das, his parents Chabin and Deepali Barman, and accountant Mukesh Agarwal.