Three arrested for digitally arresting, scamming engineer of ₹9L

MUMBAI: The police on Saturday arrested a gang of three from Gujarat for allegedly scamming gullible victims by placing them under ‘digital arrest’ after claiming their mobile numbers were used in illegal activities. Their latest victim was an engineer, who lost ₹9 lakh after he was produced before a fake ‘digital court’.

The Colaba police said the entire scam took place over video calls on WhatsApp. The complainant, an engineer from Colaba, received a WhatsApp video call from an unrecognised mobile number in September. The caller allegedly claimed to be an officer of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and told the engineer that his mobile number has been on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) radar for a few weeks as it was being used in illegal activities. He said TRAI had red flagged the number so it will be blocked in two hours. The accused had a background of a police station with some framed photos of national leaders hanging on the wall behind him during the call, so the engineer believed him and complied. The accused then placed the engineer under digital arrest.

“The caller asked the complainant to pay a penalty after he is digitally produced in court to be free,” said assistant inspector and cyber detection officer Amol Waghmare. The caller and his accomplice coerced the engineer into remaining online throughout the scam. He was directed to join another WhatsApp video call where he was allegedly produced before a judge in an online court-like set up. A fraud judge talked to him, this time with a background of a courtroom during the call, making the situation appear authentic. The fake judge asked the engineer about his bank account details before directing him to deposit a fine of ₹9 lakh. Then he provided bank details of an ICICI bank account, added Waghmare.

After the call ended, the engineer tried placing a normal call to these numbers and found out they were unreachable. Realizing he was scammed, he approached the police, who went through the IMEI numbers, and the call detail records of the mobile numbers used. The cyber detection cell of Colaba police traced the accused to Bhavnagar, Gujrat. With the help of the local police, the three men were arrested. It was found that they received the victim’s money in their own bank accounts.

The accused are identified as Hardev Singh Chudasama, Pratham Singh Rathod and Virendrasinh Gohil. They were arrested under sections 318 (cheating), 319 (cheating by personation) and 3(5) (common intention) of Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita and section 66(C) (identity theft) (D) (cheating by personation using computer resource) of Information Technology Act, 2000. They were produced before court and remanded to police custody till Tuesday.