Indore (Madhya Pradesh): A 65-year-old retired medical officer from the city was cheated of Rs 4.32 crore by scammers who kept him under digital arrest for a month. The State Cyber Cell has arrested three men in the case, police said on Friday, in what cyber officials say could possibly be the state’s biggest cyber fraud.
According to police, the fraudsters posed as officers of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and convinced the victim that his identity had been used in a massive money-laundering case. Terrified, the doctor transferred the money to various bank accounts as per the instructions of the criminals without informing anyone, not even his family.
According to SP (cyber cell) Sabyasachi Saraf, the victim living in the city with his wife, received a call on September 21 from an unknown person claiming to be a TRAI officer.
The caller informed him that his mobile numbers were used in criminal activities and his Aadhaar details had been used to open a bank account linked to a Rs 538-crore money laundering case involving Naresh Goyal in Mumbai.
The conmen allegedly warned the complainant that he would be presented before an online court. Two days later, the victim received a video call from a fake courtroom and was threatened with legal action unless he cooperated.
Over the next one month, the fraudsters contacted him several times, directing him to share complete details of his movable and immovable property, which he reportedly shared through WhatsApp.
During this period, he travelled to his home bank branch in another city, broke his fixed deposits and transferred money to various bank accounts via RTGS. When questioned by the bank staff about the unusually large withdrawals, he told them that he was buying a flat in Mumbai. He was planning to mortgage his house too to arrange a loan when he finally realised that something was wrong. A relative learned about his situation and took him to the State Cyber Cell to lodge a complaint.
After receiving the complaint, the cyber cell managed to freeze the suspicious bank accounts immediately and a case was registered on November 4 under relevant sections of the IT Act and BNS.
The team then managed to arrest three accused Sadiq Patel from Dewas, Shahid Khan from Ujjain and Sohel Khokhar from Ratlam (currently living in Bhopal). The accused were produced before the court from where they were sent to jail.
The entire operation was led by inspector Sarita Singh along with sub-inspector Nikita Singh and the team members Vikrant Tiwari, Mahavir, Rakesh Bamaniya and Dinesh Sorastri.
