MUMBAI: An elderly man sat at his dining table in South Mumbai, his phone ringing relentlessly, voices on the other end insisting that his freedom depended on his obedience. By the time the calls stopped, nearly ₹9 crore had vanished from his life’s savings—moved not by force, but by fear carefully engineered over weeks.
A Call That Claimed the Weight of the State
The fraud began late in November, when the 85-year-old retired academic received a phone call from a man claiming to be a police officer from Nashik. The caller told him that suspicious funds linked to a banned organisation had passed through his bank account and that a criminal case had been registered in his name.
The language was precise, official-sounding and urgent. The caller invoked the authority of a Special Investigation Team and the Central Bureau of Investigation, warning that non-cooperation could lead to arrest. To reinforce the threat, forged documents soon followed letters purporting to be from the Reserve Bank of India, notices threatening to freeze accounts, even a fake arrest warrant.
In one video call, a man appeared on screen dressed in what looked like a police uniform. According to investigators, the performance was deliberate: a visual cue meant to replace doubt with submission.
Life Under “Digital Arrest”
The fraudsters instructed the victim not to inform anyone not his daughters, not relatives, not even his bank claiming that secrecy was a legal requirement. They told him he was under “digital arrest,” a term with no basis in Indian law but one that carried psychological force.
For hours each day, sometimes close to five, the callers stayed in constant contact. They demanded exhaustive details: family information, bank balances, investments, mutual funds and shareholdings. Under mounting pressure, the elderly man was persuaded to liquidate his assets and transfer the money for “verification,” with repeated assurances that the funds would be returned once the inquiry concluded
Trusting the voices that claimed to represent the state, he transferred around ₹9 crore through RTGS transactions over several days.
The Moment the Chain Broke
The cycle might have continued had the victim not walked into his bank branch in Girgaum to transfer an additional ₹3 crore. The branch manager, noticing the unusually large and repeated transactions, refused to process the transfer. Instead, the manager insisted on speaking with the man’s relatives.
That intervention proved decisive. Once informed, the family recognised the pattern of fraud and immediately contacted the national cybercrime helpline. The South Cyber Cell registered a case under multiple provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including cheating, impersonation, extortion and forgery.
Investigators say the speed of the bank’s response prevented further losses, though the bulk of the money had already been moved through multiple accounts.
Following the Money Trail
The investigation soon led police to Satara district, where they arrested a 27-year-old man accused of creating a fake company to receive the defrauded funds. Around ₹3 crore of the stolen money, police say, had been routed through the firm’s bank accounts.
Further inquiries revealed that the accused was allegedly involved in at least two other cyber fraud cases and had received nearly ₹4.5 crore in total through similar schemes. Police said multiple online complaints had already been registered against him, suggesting a broader network rather than an isolated crime.
