70-yr-old duped of Rs 3.02 cr in ‘digital arrest’ cyber fraud

Harvinder Singh, a 70-year-old retired manager of the National Insurance Company and a resident of the Ranjit Avenue area, was duped of Rs 3.02 crore by cyber fraudsters posing as officials from the Central investigative agencies.

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According to police, a case has been registered at the cyber crime police station following a preliminary investigation by an Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police. The complaint was initially lodged on May 31 and the incident took place between April 28 and May 8.

The fraud began when Singh received a WhatsApp call on April 28. The caller claimed that a bank account had been opened using his wife’s Aadhaar card at Canara Bank and was allegedly involved in large-scale money laundering. He was told that a case had been registered by the crime branch in Mumbai.

To make the deception more convincing, another individual joined a video call posing as an official from the Enforcement Directorate. The scammers warned Singh that an FIR would be lodged against him for money laundering. They then placed him and his wife under what they called a “digital arrest,” claiming it was part of an ongoing online investigation.

The couple was coerced into sharing personal, financial and property-related information. Over the span of 10 days, Singh was manipulated into transferring Rs 3.02 crore into various bank accounts across the country, including in cities like Bengaluru, Visakhapatnam, Lucknow, Varanasi, Agartala and Guwahati. The accounts were in the names of fashion outlets, property dealers, trading firms and private individuals.

Commissioner of Police Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said an ADCP-rank officer conducted the initial probe, following which an FIR was registered. Investigations are going on to trace and identify the suspects.