A scam that reached into the offices of Congress MPs and a sitting Kerala MLA has ended, at least partly, with two arrests in Delhi. The Kozhikode City Cyber Police say Gourav, 21, and Nitin Kumar, 21, both residents of Sapera Basti in East Delhi, are the first suspects held in a case that saw fraudsters impersonate Priyanka Gandhi’s private secretary to demand ₹3 crore from Elathur MLA Vidya Balakrishnan, in exchange for what was pitched as a Cabinet Minister’s post.
The case began on July 6, when Balakrishnan received a WhatsApp call from a man identifying himself as “D.S. Rajkumar,” Priyanka Gandhi’s actual private secretary. The caller claimed a Cabinet reshuffle was imminent in Kerala and that her contact had been passed on by a Kerala MP, before demanding the ₹3 crore payment to secure her the position.
A Voice Note That Unravelled the Con
What separated this scam from a routine impersonation attempt was how quickly it collapsed under verification. Suspicious of the call, Balakrishnan contacted Priyanka Gandhi’s office directly, which shared a genuine voice sample of the real D.S. Rajkumar for comparison. The mismatch confirmed her suspicion, and officials at the office stated plainly that no such person or offer was associated with the MP’s team.
Balakrishnan filed a formal complaint with the Kozhikode Cyber Police on July 11, while D.S. Rajkumar, learning his identity had been misused, filed a separate complaint with the Kalpetta Cyber Police in Wayanad after discovering the same phone number had also been used to contact Vadakara MP Shafi Parambil and Idukki MP Dean Kuriakose with similar promises.
Tracing a Spoofed Number Back to Delhi
Investigators leaned on mobile tower dump analysis, call detail records and SIM registration data to trace the number back to Delhi, with assistance from the state’s Hi-Tech Crime Inquiry Cell. The trail initially led to a 30-year-old daily-wage labourer registered as the SIM’s owner, who denied making the calls and said he had lost his phone months earlier, an early indication that the syndicate may have used identity documents or stolen SIMs rather than operating under its own registered credentials.
Further investigation narrowed the search to Gourav and Nitin Kumar, who were arrested following coordinated raids by a Kozhikode team dispatched to the capital. Police say the case has been registered under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita alongside Section 66D of the Information Technology Act, which specifically addresses cheating by personation through computer resources.
A Syndicate Testing Multiple Targets
What makes the case significant beyond its own numbers is the pattern investigators uncovered while tracing it. The same phone number used on Balakrishnan was also deployed against two sitting MPs, suggesting a syndicate systematically working through a list of elected representatives rather than targeting a single victim opportunistically. Police believe the network may extend further, testing the same script of political influence and cabinet appointments against other MLAs and MPs across Kerala before any single call succeeded.
Prof. Triveni Singh, the cybercrime expert and former IPS officer, described frauds built around promises of political influence as an emerging and particularly effective form of social engineering, precisely because impersonating a recognisable, powerful office lends the caller instant credibility that ordinary phishing attempts lack. He said fraudsters typically manufacture urgency and secrecy once that credibility is established, pressuring targets to act before they can verify the claim independently, as Balakrishnan ultimately did.
He advised anyone approached with unsolicited offers involving political appointments or government positions to verify the claim directly through official channels before taking any action, and to report suspected fraud immediately through the 1930 National Cyber Crime Helpline or the official reporting portal, noting that the investigation into this case remains open as police work to identify further members of the network.
