Mira-Bhayandar: A 77-year-old woman from Mira Road was duped of more than Rs.15.49 lakh by cyber crooks posing as Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officers after issuing threats of legal action by claiming that her parcel was seized by the customs department in New Delhi as it contained narcotics.
As per the FIR registered at the local police station on Tuesday, the complainant who stays alone in the Poonam Garden area of Mira Road and survives with her husband's pension, stated that she received a call on 3, December from a person named Sunil Kumar informing that the customs department had seized a parcel in her name for containing 58 ATM cards, 15 passports and 140 grams mephedrone (MD) drugs.
As instructed the woman not only revealed her bank account details but also broke her fixed deposits (FD) and transferred the proceedings to her account. A day later a person who claimed to be a DCP attached to the CBI unit in New Delhi called the woman and asked her to come to New Delhi as she faced a money laundering and NDPS related case.
When the woman expressed inability owing to her age, the caller demanded Rs.15 lakh to hush up the matter, tagged with a warning of not disclosing the incident to anyone, else she and her children could face arrest. The terrified woman transferred the money to the specified bank account.
After some time, Anil Yadav called and demanded Rs.2 lakh, following which the woman transferred Rs.49,500. However, the demands did not end. Yadav called again, this time via video call and asked her to transfer Rs.8 lakh for securing bail in the case.
Suspecting foul play, the woman told the caller to wait as her advocate would speak to him on the issue. To this, the caller hung up and blocked her phone number.
Realising she was duped, the woman registered a complaint at the Mira Road police station following which an offence under the relevant sections of the Information Technology Act and Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) was registered against the cyber crooks. The investigating team is following the money trail to reach the account holders.
