More trouble for Elvish Yadav? Delhi Police summons YouTuber, others in ₹500 crore investment fraud

YouTuber Elvish Yadav, comedian Bharti Singh, and three others were summoned by the Delhi Police on October 3 in an app-based scam involving a fraud of ₹500 crore, PTI quoted an officer as saying.

Earlier, the police received over 500 complaints alleging that many social media influencers and YouTubers promoted the HIBOX mobile application on their pages and lured people into investing through the app.

The police official added that Sivaram (30), a resident of Chennai, has been arrested as the main accused in the scam.

According to the complaint, social media influencers and YouTubers including Saurav Joshi, Abhishek Malhan, Purav Jha, Elvish Yadav, Bharti Singh, Harsh Limbachiya, Lakshay Choudhary, Adarsh Singh, Amit, and Dilraj Singh Rawat promoted the application and lured people into investing through the app.

"HIBOX is a mobile application that was part of a well-planned scam," PTI quoted Deputy Commissioner of Police (IFSO Special Cell) Hemant Tiwari as saying.

What the app promised?

The accused in the app promised guaranteed returns of one to five per cent daily, amounting to 30 to 90 per cent in a month. Launched in February 2024, the app had over 30,000 people invested money into it.

From February to June, the investors received high returns, while from July the app withheld the payments citing technical glitches, legal issues, GST issues, etc.

"The alleged companies disappeared after closing their office in Noida in Uttar Pradesh," DCP Tiwari said.

Police action:

Police have arrested the mastermind Sivaram and seized ₹18 crore from his four different bank accounts.

On August 16, police received complaints from 29 victims against the HIBOX application at the Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Operations (IFSO). In the complaints, the complainants alleged they were promised high investment returns.

The Special Cell registered an FIR under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act on 20 August.

Apart from this, several complaints from the cyber Northeast district have also been registered against the HIBOX application by nine people. These were transferred to IFSO. Police have received over 500 complaints from the northeast district, outer district, Shahdara and NCRP portal.

"Our team gathered details of payment gateways and bank accounts involved in the fraud. Analysis of the transactions led the team to identify four accounts which were used to siphon off cheated amounts," the DCP said.

"To date, 127 complaints are clubbed and the roles of EASEBUZZ and PhonePe are under probe as the merchant accounts of the fraudsters operating HIBOX were opened virtually without following the due verification process and bypassing laid down norms of RBI, police said.

"Involvement of EASEBUZZ and PhonePe employees can’t be ruled out and an investigation is underway," DCP said.

With agency inputs.