E-Paper
Elderly doctor in Chandigarh defrauded of ₹33.8 lakh in policy maturity scam
The victim, Dr Chitranjan Singh Brar, a resident of Sector 39 B, Chandigarh, said that the fraudster claimed to be from the Reserve Bank of India
A 72-year-old was defrauded of ₹33.8 lakh on the pretext of maturing his policy. The fraud involved a man posing as an RBI official who promised to prematurely mature several of victim’s policies with a 20% bonus
The victim, Dr Chitranjan Singh Brar, of Sector 39 B, in his complaint said that the ordeal began on February 20, when he received a call from a person identifying himself as Subhash Chand Gupta, claiming to be from the Reserve Bank of India. Gupta informed him that he could expedite the maturity of his policies and provided a reference to Colonel Deep Singh Dhillon, whose policies Gupta allegedly had successfully matured. Trusting this information, Dr Brar contacted the provided number of Colonel Dhillon, who confirmed the claim.
Following these assurances, Dr Brar was instructed to deposit various sums into different bank accounts under the pretext of policy completion and surety payments, said police.
The first transaction occurred on February 22, where ₹ 2.1 lakh was transferred to a bank account. Following which transfers of ₹7.1 lakh, ₹5 lakh, ₹10 lakh, and other significant amounts were made to accounts in RBL Bank, HDFC Bank, and Federal Bank, totaling ₹33.8 lakh, police added.
The fraudsters strategically used multiple bank accounts to make the scam appear legitimate and to evade detection.
Police have registered a case under Sections 420 (cheating), 419 (cheating by personation), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471(using as genuine a forged document) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) the Indian Penal Code at PS-Cyber Crime against unknown person.
