The fake website at the heart of the scam.
A multi-crore scam related to a fake website - claiming to be attached the Prime Minister's Office - has been busted by the Delhi Police. The man allegedly behind it, Sudpita Chatterjee, has been arrested from his home in West Bengal's Howrah.
Chatterjee had created the fake website, which resembled a government website, and hosted it on a server based in the US, said police sources.
Using government loans as bait, the website - pmay-gov.in, "pradhan mantri adarsh yojna" - extracted hefty sums of money from entrepreneurs as initial deposit.
"This welfare oriented project is set with the aim of the common man's economic progress, social justice and empowerment," the website said.
Its Governing Council works under "the powerful parliamentary committee", comprising the Prime Minister, the Ministers of the 21 ministries, the Planning Commission and "eminent officials of the Prime Minister's Office," the website claimed.
Police sources said Chatterjee managed to dupe nearly 200 people from across the country through this scam.
The website was being run from Howrah and had an active call centre, which had 17 tele-callers. The set-up was complete with fake government rubber stamps and fake project reports, the police said.
Chatterjee has allegedly created other domains -- bharat-sarkar.in, govindia.in, CGTMSE-govt.in, and fake government email identities like goi@developmentofindia.in and project@developmentofindia.in.
The police said they were hoping to make more arrests in the next few days.