YouTuber Elvish, comedian Bharti Singh summoned in Rs 500-cr fraud case

The Delhi police summoned YouTuber Elvish Yadav and comedian Bharti Singh and three more in an app-based scam involving a fraud of Rs 500 crore, an officer said on Thursday.

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 officer said.

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

As per 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," Deputy Commissioner of Police (IFSO Special Cell) Hemant Tiwari said.

Through this application, the accused promised guaranteed returns of one to five per cent daily, amounting to 30 to 90 percent in a month, the DCP said.

The app was launched in February 2024. Over 30,000 people invested money into the app.

During the initial five months, the investors received high returns. However, 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.

The police said that the mastermind Sivaram was arrested and Rs 18 crore has been seized 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). The complainants alleged that they were promised high returns on their investments.

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

During the investigation, many complaints from the cyber Northeast district have also been registered against the HIBOX application by nine people who were cheated similarly.

These nine cases were transferred to IFSO. The 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.