A ‘digital arrest’ that began with a landline call did not stay on the screen: within weeks, fraudsters posing as CBI and ED officers had drained a 75-year-old Delhi woman’s savings, made her pledge her gold and arranged for a stranger to walk away with the papers of her Rs 2 crore house, the complaint states.
New Delhi: Delhi Police have told the Delhi High Court that a gang operating from Cambodia was behind a ‘digital arrest’ scam in which a 75-year-old woman undergoing cancer treatment in Vasant Kunj lost her life savings, her jewellery and her Rs 2 crore house. The police status report was filed on a petition by the woman’s daughter seeking a CBI investigation into the fraud.
The police have also stated that the probe did not find any role of the property dealer who took the house documents and brought buyers to the property.
How the scam unfolded
According to the complaint, the woman received a call on her landline on April 6 from two men claiming to be CBI and ED officers, who told her that her mobile number was linked to another number used for money laundering. When she said she did not know how to file a complaint, they moved the conversation to a WhatsApp video call, appearing in police uniform.
She was kept on a continuous video call and threatened that she and her children would be arrested within 30 minutes. She was told not to speak to anyone as the matter concerned national security. Under this pressure, she transferred Rs 3 lakh from her bank account. The callers then asked for details of her jewellery and made her pledge 83.5 grams of gold with a gold loan company, and she transferred the loan amount of about Rs 4.95 lakh to them.
From video call to property sale
When she pleaded to be left alone, the callers told her that the rest of the process would be completed at her home and that an “authorised” property dealer would visit her about the house. A dealer called her on April 8 and, on April 13, visited the property and left with all the original documents without giving any receipt. Two days later, he returned with buyers and a witness, and she was made to sign an advance receipt-cum-agreement to sell.
Cheques of Rs 23 lakh and Rs 10 lakh were then deposited in her account. The same day, Rs 21 lakh was withdrawn, followed by Rs 3 lakh the next day, and the money was routed to an account held in the name of a society. After a final call on April 23, she suspected she had been defrauded and, together with the dealer, approached the police. An e-FIR was registered on April 27.
Daughter moves High Court
The woman’s daughter, who lives in the Netherlands, said she found her mother frightened and with an unknown man during a video call on April 27, and told her to go to the police. After arriving in Delhi on April 29, she approached the dealer for the property documents and alleges that he demanded Rs 24 lakh to return them. The dealer has maintained that he was approached by another person who told him the woman was ill and needed to sell her property, and that the woman herself had called him.
The daughter then moved the Delhi High Court seeking a CBI investigation. In its status report, Delhi Police stated that no role of the dealer had been found and that the fraud was carried out by a Cambodia-based gang. None of the allegations has yet been tested in court, and the investigation is continuing.
No agency arrests by video call
There is no provision in Indian law for a “digital arrest”. Police, the CBI and the ED do not arrest, question or demand money from anyone over a video call, and no genuine officer will ask a person to keep a call secret or transfer funds for “verification”. Victims of such calls can report them on the national cybercrime helpline 1930 or at cybercrime.gov.in.