CHENNAI: The police have arrested two men from Maharashtra for allegedly posing as Mumbai Cyber Crime officers and extorting Rs 19.9 lakh from a city resident.
According to police, Santhosh AV (33), a resident of Ashok Nagar, lodged a complaint with the South Zone Cyber Crime Police Station on September 24, stating he had received a call on August 12 from an unknown number. The caller, claiming to be a courier agent, accused Santhosh of using his Aadhaar card to book a suspicious parcel containing expired passports, credit cards, clothes, and banned LSD drugs.
Posing as officers from the Mumbai Cybercrime unit and later the Narcotics Control Bureau, the fraudsters told him that his Aadhaar had been misused for illegal money transfers linked to terrorism. They demanded payment to clear him from the case. Believing the claims, Santhosh took a personal loan of Rs 19.92 lakh from ICICI bank and transferred it to their accounts.
Following an investigation, a special team arrested the suspects — Naresh Kalyan Rao Shinde (20) and Srikanth Suresh Rao Khatkar (34) — from Aurangabad, Maharashtra. Both were produced in court and remanded in custody.