A 90-year-old retired district judge in Rajasthan’s Jaipur was allegedly kept under “digital arrest” for nearly 15 days and cheated of around ₹2.5 crore by unidentified people posing as Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officers and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) officials, police said.
Police officers said that the fraudsters allegedly threatened to arrest Ganpat Singh Bhandari in connection with a purported ₹50-crore hawala transaction and kept him under constant surveillance through video calls, pressuring him to transfer money to multiple bank accounts.
Bhandari’s nephew, Ravindra Singh Mohanaut, lodged a complaint with the Jyoti Nagar police station.
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Received phone call from ‘cop’
According to the complaint, Bhandari received a WhatsApp video call on July 28 from a man dressed in a police uniform who introduced himself as a CBI officer posted in Mumbai.
The caller claimed that a ₹50-crore hawala transaction had been detected in Mumbai and that ₹40 lakh from the proceeds had been deposited into Bhandari’s State Bank of India (SBI) account.
{{/usCountry}}The caller claimed that a ₹50-crore hawala transaction had been detected in Mumbai and that ₹40 lakh from the proceeds had been deposited into Bhandari’s State Bank of India (SBI) account.
{{/usCountry}}The caller allegedly threatened Bhandari with arrest and told him that he would be taken to Mumbai if he failed to cooperate with the investigation. The fraudsters also threatened to implicate one of his family members, creating fear of arrest and public embarrassment.
The accused allegedly remained in constant contact with him through video calls. At different stages, they posed as CBI officers and RBI managers and told him that his bank accounts were being investigated in connection with a serious financial crime.
‘Delete chats, call logs’
Bhandari was allegedly instructed to follow their directions until the purported investigation was completed and warned against discussing the matter with his family or anyone else. He was allegedly warned that disclosing details of the purported investigation or communicating with family members could lead to legal action against him.
He was also asked to delete WhatsApp chats, call logs and other messages after every interaction. Under pressure, Bhandari allegedly complied for several days.
The complaint further mentions that Bhandari transferred around ₹2.5 crore to different bank accounts specified by the callers between August 3 and August 10. When the former judge reached SBI’s Johri Bazaar branch on Wednesday morning to transfer the funds, the bank manager grew suspicious.
After questioning him about the transaction and learning the circumstances, the manager stopped the transfer and alerted Bhandari that this might be a cyber fraud. The former judge then contacted his nephew.
Jyoti Nagar Station House Officer (SHO) Gunjan Verma said, “We received a complaint in this regard on Wednesday and have recorded the victim’s statement. We have also succeeded in putting around ₹14 lakh on hold.”
“We are investigating the remaining amount to ascertain how the money was transferred and subsequently withdrawn. Further investigation is underway,” she added.
Police are examining the bank accounts used in the transactions and attempting to trace the people behind the alleged cyber fraud.