BENGALURU: The Northeast CEN Police arrested three individuals for extorting Rs 11 crore from a software engineer by impersonating as Customs and Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers. The accused have been identified as Karan, Tarun Nathani, and Dhaval Shah.
According to police sources, when the accused learned that the victim had recently received Rs 12 crore, they began contacting him from different numbers, introducing themselves as ED and Customs officials.
They alleged that there were illegal financial transactions in his account and demanded his KYC documents under the pretense of conducting an investigation. The trio threatened the victim with money laundering charges and pressured him to transfer money to avoid legal action.
Believing their claims, the software engineer transferred money to nine different accounts over a month. During this period, he was harassed and coerced. Realising he had fallen victim to a scam, he eventually filed a complaint with the police.
Further, when the police analysed bank transactions, they found that Rs 7.5 crore had been transferred to the account of a gold jewelery shop owner in Surat. During their investigation in Surat, they found that the accused had used the extorted money to purchase gold. Subsequently, the police gathered details about the other accounts where the money was transferred and arrested all three accused.