A 68-year-old woman from Andheri West was cheated of Rs 3.71 crore after fraudsters posed as police, CBI officials and a fake judge in a staged virtual court hearing. The accused allegedly threatened her with arrest in a fake money laundering case and forced her to transfer her savings to “secure” accounts.
A 68-year-old woman living in Andheri West, Mumbai, has alleged that she was cheated of ₹3.71 crore in a well-planned “digital arrest” scam, where fraudsters created a fake online court hearing and even used the name of a top judge to scare her into transferring her life savings.
The West Region Cyber Police Station has registered an FIR and started an investigation against several unknown persons who allegedly pretended to be officers of the Mumbai Police, officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and a magistrate.
The accused allegedly trapped the woman by claiming that she was involved in a serious money laundering case.
As per the FIR, the complainant, Dhanalakshmi Satyanarayana Rao Naidu, first received a phone call on August 18, 2025 from a man who introduced himself as “Vijay Paul”.
He told her that he would connect her to Colaba Police Station. Soon after, she started receiving WhatsApp video calls from two different numbers.
During these video calls, one man identified himself as “SK” from Colaba Police Station. He claimed that her Aadhaar card had been misused to open a Canara Bank account.
According to him, illegal transactions worth Rs 6 crore had taken place through that account, and a money laundering case had been registered in her name.
To make the story sound more real, the caller sent her a document and claimed that one “Naresh Goyal” had already been arrested in the same case. She was warned that she and her family members could be arrested at any time if she did not cooperate with the investigation.
The FIR states that the woman was clearly instructed not to tell anyone about the case. She was told that she was under constant watch and placed under supposed 24-hour surveillance.
The fraudsters then told her that the CBI would now take over the case and that her “hearing” would be conducted very soon.
Later, she received another video call where a man appeared wearing clothes similar to a judge’s attire. He was introduced to her as “Judge Chandrachud” and was said to be the person who would decide her bail application.
Before this so-called court hearing, another man identifying himself as “SK Jaiswal” contacted her. He asked her to write a two-to-three-page note about her entire life so that her character could be checked. He assured her that if she was found innocent, she would be granted bail quickly.
During the fake virtual hearing, the man posing as “Judge Chandrachud” questioned her about the alleged money laundering case. When she denied any involvement, he told her that her bail was rejected and abruptly left the video call. This act further frightened her and made her believe that her arrest was certain.
After this, the accused told her that the only way to prove her innocence was to submit all her money and assets for verification. She was told that around 90–95% of her mutual fund investments and bank balances had to be transferred to “secure” accounts through RTGS.
Believing that she was following genuine directions from the police and a court, the elderly woman shared details of all her bank accounts. Between August 18 and early October, she transferred a total amount of ₹3.71 crore to several bank accounts as instructed over repeated calls from the numbers used by “Vijay Paul”, “SK” and others.
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The FIR further mentions that when the callers started demanding more money, delayed returning the funds on one excuse or another, and continued to threaten her with arrest, she finally realised that she had been cheated. She then approached the West Region Cyber Police and filed a complaint.
The cyber police have registered offences against unknown persons for cheating, impersonation and using forged documents. Investigators are now tracing the mule accounts where the money was transferred, including accounts that have been linked to the state of Gujarat.
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