Mangaluru: A 62-year-old person from Puttur taluk has allegedly lost Rs 1.31 crore in a ‘digital arrest’ cyber fraud after unidentified persons posing as Mumbai Police and Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) officials threatened to arrest him for allegedly transferring money to the perpetrators of the Pahalgam terror attack.
The fraudsters allegedly accused the person of money laundering and terrorist funding, threatened him with severe punishment, including the death penalty and life imprisonment, and kept him under surveillance through WhatsApp video calls for several days. They allegedly made him transfer money to multiple bank accounts on the pretext of verifying his finances and establishing his innocence.
The person received a call on his mobile phone around 3 pm on August 27 from an unidentified number. The caller, speaking in Hindi and English, claimed to be a Mumbai Police official and alleged that the victim had transferred money to those responsible for the Pahalgam massacre in Kashmir. The caller further claimed that an arrest warrant had been issued against him by the Bombay High Court.
The caller told him that the Mumbai ATS would investigate the matter and asked him to answer a WhatsApp video call from another number. During the call, a person claiming to be an ATS official allegedly told the victim that the matter was top secret and instructed him to sit in a closed room without allowing any family member to hear the conversation.
The fraudsters allegedly sent him notices through WhatsApp accusing him of involvement in the offences and directed him to surrender at the Mumbai ATS office within 48 hours. When the victim pleaded that he had not committed any wrongdoing, they cited details of his bank accounts and specific financial transactions to convince him that they were genuine government officials.
They threatened him with legal action if he disclosed the matter to his family or friends.
The accused allegedly continued to threaten the complainant through WhatsApp video calls. They instructed him to transfer money through the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system to various bank accounts.
Believing their claims, the victim transferred a total of Rs 1.31 crore (1,31,50,000) through RTGS to various bank accounts specified by the fraudsters in several instalments between September 2 and October 6, 2026.
The fraud came to light on October 8 when his daughter in Bengaluru alerted him to a similar case in Mangaluru, following which he contacted the cybercrime helpline 1930 and approached the police.
The victim was allegedly cheated of Rs 1.31 crore, which included money raised by pledging his gold and taking loans against his property.
CCPS DK has registered a case under Sections 66(C) and 66(D) of the Information Technology Act and Sections 126(2), 204, 308(6), 318(4), 319(2) and 351, read with Section 3(5), of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
