NEW DELHI: Eight people, including a priest, have been arrested for allegedly duping an elderly NRI couple of over Rs 14 crore through a “digital arrest” scam, police said. Of the total Rs 14.84 crore siphoned off, Rs 2.08 crore has been frozen so far, police added.
The accused acted as facilitators by procuring and operating mule bank accounts and layering the defrauded money through multiple accounts. The funds were routed at the behest of an international cybercrime syndicate operating from Cambodia and Nepal, police said.
The case came to light after a 77-year-old woman residing in Greater Kailash reported that she had been cheated of Rs 14.84 crore. Police said the victim received a call in December last year claiming that a SIM card issued in her name was linked to a money-laundering case.
She was subsequently placed on video calls, during which fraudsters impersonating officials of agencies such as the CBI and police intimidated her by showing a forged arrest warrant, a police official said.
“The fraudsters contacted her repeatedly from various unknown mobile numbers. They conducted fake court proceedings through video calls and kept both the complainant and her husband continuously on video calls. They were instructed not to contact anyone else and were threatened that if they disclosed the matter, both of them would be killed,” a senior police officer said.
Under fear and coercion, the couple was persuaded to transfer funds, including fixed deposits and share investments, into so-called ‘RBI-mandated accounts’ for verification, with false assurances that the money would be returned.
Believing these claims, the complainant transferred Rs 14.84 crore through eight transactions. The accused were arrested from Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha during a multi-state operation. “Police arrested Patel Divyang, Shitole Krutik and Ankit Mishra from Vadodara; Mahavir Sharma from Bhubaneswar; Arun Kumar Tiwari and Pradyuman Tiwari from Varanasi; and Bhupendra Mishra and Adesh Yadav from Lucknow,” DCP (IFSO) Vinit Kumar said.