Retired Colonel, His Wife Lose Rs 3.4 Crore After Cyber Thugs Place Them Under 'Digital Arrest'

Chandigarh: Cyber thugs are on the prowl in India these days, with scores of cases being reported from several states involving innocent citizens who lose their hard-earned money.

The modus operandi of these cyber criminals in the recent past has been putting a victim under "digital arrest" to harass and essentially dupe the person out of their savings. In one such recent case from Chandigarh, a retired Army Colonel Dilip Singh Bajwa and his wife Ranwinder Kaur lost Rs 3.41 crore after cyber criminals allegedly placed the Army veteran under "digital arrest" for nine straight days between March 18 and 27.

While the case is being investigated by police, the way the elderly couple was duped is shocking in itself. Colonel (Retd.) Bajwa, a resident of Chandigarh Sector 2, received a call from an international number on March 18. The caller asked him whether he knew a person named "Naresh Goyal".

As Bajwa denied knowing this person, the caller claimed that 'Goyal' was in jail in a money laundering case, and as many as 247 ATM cards were recovered from his house. One of these ATM cards carried Bajwa's name and Rs 20 lakh had been deposited in the account, the caller claimed. The cyber criminals claimed that Naresh Goyal was the jailed owner of Jet Airways who had told the police that Bajwa sold his bank account to him for Rs 5 lakh and received Rs 20 lakh for laundering Rs 2 crore.

Hearing this, the retired Army officer was shocked and had no clue what was going on. The caller, in an attempt to further scare the elderly, said he (Bajwa) could be arrested since it was a matter of national security.

Col (Retd.) Bajwa was in for a greater shock the next day. This time, the caller referred to a fake Supreme Court letter and told Bajwa and his wife that a team would soon reach their home to arrest them.

More calls came during the week that followed, every time the caller would put pressure on the elderly couple to share the information regarding the money and gold they owned.

On March 27, the caller even showed a fake courtroom during the video call, run by a fake judge with fake police officials surrounding him.

"I was digitally arrested nine times. On March 27, at 3 pm, the courtroom was shown on video call, where the judge, police officer and two accused were visible. During this, the judge told me that your bail is guaranteed, but you will have to fill a bail warrant of Rs 2 crore. To this, I replied that we have no money left now. Then the judge asked me to arrange money somehow...A total of Rs 3.41 crore was transferred from me to five different accounts."

During the 'digital arrest', the cyber thugs threatened the victim not to contact anyone. When he attempted to borrow money from some of his relatives, he came to know of the digital fraud, following which the couple filed a complaint with the police on March 28. They also wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, appealing for help as they had lost their life savings.