Production officer at factory duped of Rs 50L:Accused defraud him on pretext of investment in share market, IPOs; cops register FIR, launch manhunt

A man aged 46, employed as a production officer at a factory in the Mandideep town of Raisen, was duped to the tune of Rs 50.45 lakh over the past two months by several persons, the police reported on Tuesday. According to the Bag Sewaniya police, they have registered an FIR against three, and have launched a manhunt to apprehend them. Victim named Umesh Thakre Investigating officer (IO) in the case, Manoj Sharma told Bhaskar English that the man who was duped of the amount is named Umesh Thakre (46). As per police, Thakre works as a production officer at a factory in Mandideep. In August 2025, he was contacted by a man named Harsh Namdev on WhatsApp, who shared a link to the Burger app with him, and advised him to invest huge sums of money in share market, as well as several IPOs, to gain handsome benefits. Believing it to be true, Thakre invested as much as Rs 50.45 lakh over two months. App shows gains worth Rs 3 crore, Thakre tries withdrawing amount, fails Recently, when Thakre accessed the app, whose link was shared by Namdev and his accomplices, he saw that he had procured a whopping Rs 3 crore through investments. When he tried withdrawing the amount, he failed. Upon contacting Namdev, he was told that he needs to pay Rs 37 lakh more as tax to withdraw the entire amount. Realising that he had been duped, Thakre approached the Bag Sewaniya police on Monday. After a probe, the police registered an FIR against Namdev, and his aides identified as Annu Sharma, AG Joseph, as well as the operators of the Burger app. Bag Sewaniya police station house officer (SHO) Amit Soni said that the police are persevering in efforts to nab the accused.