Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Police have found a suspected number during scanning of call detail record (CDR) of advocate Shivkumar Verma (62) who committed suicide by hanging himself after being falsely accused of terror funding by cyber conmen.
Police officials said that CDR revealed a suspected number from which the advocate received a call before he ended his life.
Investigators suspect that the same number was used by the cyber fraudsters who accused Verma of financing terrorists involved in Pahalgam attack. Police officials believe that after the initial threat call, the scammers may have also made a Whats App video call to the advocate and staged a digital arrest while posing as ATS or officials of other security agencies. The elderly advocate may have panicked after the allegations and took the extreme step.
However, officers have not been able to access the complete WhatsApp call history as the phone is locked and certain data remain inaccessible. “The mobile phone has been sent for a detailed forensic examination. We are also verifying the location and identity of the suspicious number,” said Man Singh, incharge of Jehangirabad police station.
Police are coordinating with cyber experts to ascertain whether the scammers used spoofed numbers, VoIP-based calls or manipulated caller IDs, officials added.
It is worth mentioning that the advocate committed suicide by hanging himself at his residence under Jehangirabad police station limits late Monday night. Terrified over the prospect of being labelled as anti-national, the advocate took the extreme step, revealed the suicide note recovered by police from his room.
