Chembur resident loses ₹12.80 crore in ‘digital arrest’ fraud

he East Cyber police station has registered an FIR based on his complaint and efforts are on to trace the accounts where the money was transferred

MUMBAI: A 56-year-old Chembur resident has been duped of ₹12.80 crore by cyber frauds who claimed they were Mumbai crime branch officers and placed him under ‘digital arrest’ claiming his Aadhaar card had been used in a human trafficking and money laundering case. The victim transferred the money to the frauds in several tranches over four months, including by foreclosing his fixed deposits, liquidating his retired parents’ savings and selling their shares in private companies. The East Cyber police station has registered a first information report (FIR) based on his complaint and efforts are on to trace the accounts where the money was transferred, said police.

A 56-year-old Chembur resident has been duped of ₹12.80 crore by cyber frauds who claimed they were Mumbai crime branch officers. (iStock)

The victim is unemployed and derives a livelihood from rents on properties purchased by his parents, who worked as managers in private firms. On November 28, he approached the police saying he had been defrauded and narrated the sequence of events in a detailed statement based on which the FIR was registered.

According to the police, on July 19, he received a WhatsApp call from a person who identified himself as Naga Chimti and told him that the Mumbai crime branch had booked him for human trafficking and money laundering as his mobile number and Aadhaar number had been used in cases under investigation. Inspector Vikram Singh from the crime branch would contact him and question him about the matter, he was told and asked not to inform anyone about the probe.

An hour later, a person wearing a police uniform and claiming to be inspector Vikram Singh appeared on a WhatsApp video call and interrogated him for almost an hour, claiming black money had been deposited in his and his parents’ bank accounts. The caller asked him to deposit all his savings in a certain bank account, assuring him that once the investigation was over, the money would be returned to him, he told the police in his statement.

Singh called the Chembur resident several times over the next four months, asked him about his and his parents’ savings and financial assets and asked him to deposit large sums of money in certain bank accounts by liquidating these assets, which the latter complied with. The Chembur resident connected with Singh via WhatsApp video calls when he visited banks to foreclose fixed deposits, withdraw funds and sell his parents’ shares, said police

“The accused manipulated the complainant and made him transfer ₹12.80 crore to various bank accounts, falsely claiming black money had been deposited in his bank account,” said inspector Rupesh Naik from East Cyber police station. The accused have been booked for cheating, criminal conspiracy, and breach of trust and the probe to identify them and beneficiaries of the fraud is underway, he added.