The CBI has registered a case in connection with the “digital arrest” of a 73-year-old retired engineer from Delhi’s Rohini who was allegedly swindled out of ₹10 crore by cyber criminals posing as police and employees of a multinational courier company.
They claimed that a consignment, booked using his Aadhaar card, to China had been returned. Subsequently, they connected him with their associates who posed as officers from Mumbai police. They coerced him to shell out money through a series of transactions in the name of the police and the Enforcement Directorate chief.
The victim, who lived with his wife in Rohini’s Sector 10, allegedly transferred ₹10.3 crore to the fraudsters in October last year. Based on his complaint, an FIR was filed by the Delhi police’s cyber cell, before further investigation was taken up by the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) wing.
The case was transferred to the CBI by the Union home ministry earlier this month for a detailed probe after the Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of ever-increasing cases of “digital arrest” scams across the country.
Earlier this month, the CBI had filed a chargesheet against a Siliguri-based trust and its manager for allegedly duping a 78-year-old retired Delhi banker out of ₹23 crore in one of the biggest “digital arrest” cases in the country.
Sources in the agency said the victim, Naresh Malhotra, was confined to his house for more than a month under
digital arrest last year and
was let out only to make runs to banks to withdraw money and give it to the fraudsters who posed as CBI and
ED officers.