Frauds impersonate senior cops, dupe 78-year-old couple of ₹45 L

The frauds threatened to arrest the couple if they did not cooperate with the investigation, and added that if they did not comply with their requests, they could be imprisoned for seven years or face a ₹5 crore penalty

NAVI MUMBAI: In yet another ‘digital arrest’ fraud, a retired couple was duped of nearly ₹45 lakh by frauds pretending to be senior police officers including the city’s joint commissioner of police (law and order), Vishwas Nangre Patil.

Frauds impersonate senior cops, dupe 78-year-old couple of ₹45 L

According to the Kharghar police, the frauds used the image and identity Patil to lend credibility to their elaborate fraud. The frauds then approached the victims, a 78-year-old retired couple, and misled them into thinking they were being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for their alleged involvement in a money laundering case.

As per the complaint, on October 15, a man called the couple claiming to be a ‘Mr. Sharma’ from the Data Protection Board of India. He told them that they were involved in a criminal case filed in Nashik. Soon afterwards, another caller identified himself as police officer Hemraj Kohli, and told the victims they would be “arrested within an hour”.

A police officer said, “To make it more convincing, a person impersonating IPS officer Vishwas Nangre Patil came on video call. The impostor, dressed in police uniform, ordered the victim to transfer large sums of money to several “official” accounts, as part of a confidential investigation.”

The frauds threatened to arrest the couple if they did not cooperate with the investigation, and added that if they did not comply with their requests, they could be imprisoned for seven years or face a ₹5 crore penalty.

Fearing arrest and imprisonment, the couple transferred ₹44.91 lakh through the RTGS (Real-Time Gross Settlement) method from their Saraswat Bank and Shamrao Vithal Co-operative Bank accounts. The police added that after the transactions, the frauds even gave the couple forged ED acknowledgement receipts via WhatsApp. While the frauds asked them not to tell anyone about the matter, the couple finally shared the incident with a relative and realised they had been conned.

The Kharghar police have registered an FIR under sections 318(4) (cheating), 316(2) (criminal breach of trust), and 204 (personating a public servant) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) along with Section 66(D) (cheating through impersonation using digital means) of the Information Technology Act.