Chandigarh-based retd Colonel, wife duped of ₹3.41 crore: Three more held
On March 18, Bajwa, a resident of Sector 2-A, Chandigarh, received a call from an international number in which the caller pretended to be a government official
The cybercrime cell of Chandigarh Police has arrested three more accused in connection with the digital arrest scam that defrauded 82-year-old Colonel Dalip Singh Bajwa (retd) of ₹3.41 crore. With the latest arrests, the total number of accused held in the case has risen to five, police said on Saturday.
The arrests were made as part of the ongoing probe into FIR registered under Sections 308, 319(2), 318(4), 336(3), 338, 340(2), and 61(2) of the BNS.
The three newly arrested accused have been identified as Avtar Singh (21), Amritpal Singh (25), and Sunil Kumar (24), all residents of Sirsa, Haryana.
According to police, accused Amritpal Singh and Sunil Kumar persuaded Avtar Singh to open a bank account in IndusInd Bank under his name. Once operational, the account was used to receive a fraudulently obtained amount of ₹9.40 lakh, part of the overall scam.
After the money was credited, Amritpal and Sunil withdrew the amount in cash. They retained 1% of the total as commission and handed over the remaining amount to another suspect, who remains at large. This account was one of many others used to siphon off funds from the victim.
Earlier, police arrested Mehak Yadav, 25, from Narnaul, Haryana, and Sachin Sharma, 23, from Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan. The duo had taken 1.05 crore in the account and taken 1.2 lakh as commission.
The case was registered based on a complaint by Dilip Singh Bajwa, a resident of Sector 2A, Chandigarh, who was defrauded of ₹3.41 crore through an elaborate “digital arrest” scam.
On March 18, 2025, Bajwa received a call from an international number +96424111812. The caller pretended to be a government official and showed him a fabricated ATM card linked to a fake virtual account created in his name via a video call. The following day, the caller claimed the account was under investigation for ₹2 crore money laundering, allegedly involving businessman Naresh Goyal, and accused Bajwa of taking ₹20 lakh commission.
To instil fear, the scammers presented a forged Supreme Court arrest warrant and kept Bajwa on continuous video call, intimidating him into making multiple transfers to different accounts under the pretext of avoiding arrest.
The cybercrime team is now probing the financial trail, including other linked accounts, money mules, and digital devices used in the scam.
