A 70-year-old resident of New Town has been cheated out of ₹90 lakh after cybercriminals placed him under “digital arrest”.
Arun Kumar Raha, a resident of Sukhobrishti Apartment in New Town, filed a complaint with the cyber cell of the Bidhannagar City Police last week, claiming that a group of fraudsters contacted him in the guise of telecom department officials and a senior IPS officer, threatening arrest based on a fictitious Supreme Court order.
“The first caller told the complainant that a SIM card issued in his name had been used for fraudulent activities,” said an officer.
A few days later, another man called, claiming that Raha’s name had been identified as a suspect in a money laundering case, while the Supreme Court had issued an arrest warrant against him.
“The men conducted a virtual hearing and said I have been digitally arrested and coerced into transferring money to their accounts,” Raha told the police.
He transferred ₹89,82,000 from one account and ₹2,00,000 from another account.
Raha first reported the matter to the National Cyber Crime Portal and then to the local police.