AHMEDABAD: In what police say is the biggest cyber fraud on an individual in the country, cheats teased out Rs 11,06,71,824 from a 62-year-old textile businessman, Prataprai Avtani, a resident of Asavari Towers in Satellite. Avtani lodged a complaint in this regard on January 24.According to cyber cell officials, the cheats first lured Avtani into ‘buying’ various insurance policies and then entering other investment schemes, with promises of high returns. They later told him to pay more money towards fees and charges to redeem his investments, which they told him had grown to Rs 30 crore.Avtani paid them the money into 186 different accounts, between June 2016 and December 2019. He has named 96 persons as accused.Avtani lives with his family at Asavari Towers in Satellite and owns various textile companies operating from the Kalupur area of the city. According to the FIR, in March 2016, he bought two insurance policies worth Rs 50,000 each from a private bank, for his granddaughters.The FIR states that in the same month, he got a call from one Kaushik Desai, identifying himself as being from the bank Avtani had bought the policies from. “Desai told Avtani that he got his details because of the two policies he had bought earlier. He told Avtani that the bank offered several other policies, which would give him double the returns,” said a cyber cell official.The FIR states that Avtani paid first Rs 1,98,000 on March 15, 2016 and then through various transactions till 2018, ‘invested’ more than Rs 50 lakh.According to the FIR, Desai then told Avtani and said that as his investment had crossed Rs 50 lakh, his case would be handled by Sadanand Mishra from their Hyderabad office. “Mishra then induced him into ‘investing’ more money. When Avtani sought to redeem his investments, Mishra told him that Jagdish Kute of their Chennai office would handle his case,” a cyber cell official said.In August 2018, Mishra called Avtani and said Kute was out of station and he would get his ‘file cleared’, but Avtani would have to pay some charges and taxes.“Avtani paid the money Mishra demanded into various bank accounts. In November 2018, one Vikas Dangar called, saying he was from the Delhi office and Avtani would have to pay Rs 1 crore to have his file cleared. Avtani paid the Rs 1 crore into various bank accounts as instructed by Dangar and waited for his ‘file to be cleared’,”One Premkumar Shaswat then called Avtani, saying he was calling from the from Hyderabad office. “He told Avtani that if he followed his instructions, his investments would be cleared in 15 days,” said a cyber investigator.From June 2019 to July 2019, one Ashok Ravat called Avtani, saying he was from the Delhi office. He told Avtani that he was to get Rs 30 crore but permission from the Reserve Bank of India and finance ministry was needed, and Avtani would have to pay more money. Avtani stated in his FIR that between August 2019 and October 2019, several people called him and made him pay, purportedly to get his ‘investments’ released.