UP: Elderly couple put under ‘digital arrest’, duped of Rs 15 lakh

Bhadohi (UP), May 24 (PTI) A 70-year-old man and his wife in Uttar Pradesh’s Bhadohi district were defrauded of Rs 15 lakh after being held under a week-long "digital arrest", police said on Saturday.

Superintendent of Police Abhimanyu Manglik said that the scam unfolded between April 21 and 28.

In his complaint, Sheetla Prasad Yadav alleged that he received a call from a person identifying himself as CBI officer Naresh Goyal from Colaba Police Station, Mumbai.

The caller informed Yadav that crores of rupees had been transacted from his bank account and threatened him with arrest, the police said.

“The accused proceeded to extract his bank account details. Under duress, Yadav was coerced into transferring Rs 9,85,000 via RTGS to an account belonging to a person named Mahendra in Punjab National Bank, located in Khinnavasar Nagar, Rajasthan," said Manglik.

Subsequently, the caller instructed Yadav to transfer an additional Rs 5,10,000 from his wife's account. This amount was transferred via RTGS on April 28 to an account belonging to a woman named Rehana Rain in UCO Bank, Kidwai Nagar, Kanpur district, he added.

According to police sources, between April 21 and 28, the accused kept calling the couple on various devices and constantly threatened them with arrest and strict police action if the couple failed to comply with their orders.

SP Manglik confirmed that a case has been registered at the cyber police station, and further investigations are underway to apprehend the culprits behind the fraud.

Digital arrest is a tactic where the accused pose as law enforcement agency officials, like CBI or customs officials, and threatens people of arrest by making calls in the name of fake international parcels or other pretext. PTI COR CDN NB NB