An IIT professor was allegedly put under digital arrest for 12 days by cyber thugs who duped her of around Rs 12 lakh. The thugs, posing as officers of Mumbai Crime Branch, put the professor under surveillance in the name of money laundering case and told her that one of her parcels has arrived in Mumbai, in which drugs, passport and credit cards have been found.
The cyber frauds took control of all her communication devices and got the money transferred from her bank account. The victim registered a case regarding this in the Karwad police station of Jodhpur on Tuesday. Sub Inspector Mahendra Kumar said that a case of digital arrest and cyber fraud has been registered.
The victim is Amrita Puri who is an Assistant Professor of IIT Jodhpur and lives in the IIT campus.In her report lodged with the police, Amrita said that she had received many calls from different numbers on August 1. The caller introduced himself as a policeman and told that one of her parcels has arrived in Mumbai with MD drugs, several passports and credit cards. The caller told her to report to Mumbai Cyber Crime Branch and himself transferred the call to the cyber branch.
Amrita said that the other person introduced himself as DCP of Cyber Crime Branch of Mumbai and said that she has been trapped in a money laundering case and would be arrested if she doesn't co-operate with the police. “I was scared after hearing this and kept doing whatever they told me,” said the victim in her report. The police said that the miscreants kept the professor on constant surveillance and took control of her mobile phone.
The camera was kept on and the screen was shared. Not only this, her laptop was also taken under control through Skype app. The professor could not even contact anyone. Whatever the professor did, it was under the surveillance of the thugs. The professor was kept on surveillance from August 1.
On August 11th, the thugs sought the details of the victim's bank account and after transferring Rs 11. 97 lakh on August 12th, the thugs removed their access to all the communication devices of the professor.Then, only the professor realised that she had been defrauded. She immediately got her account blocked and lodged the report with the police. The police are investigating the case.
