'Digital arrest' cyber-scam nets Rs 1.10 crore
- Mumbai Police registered a cyber-fraud case after a Ghatkopar family said scammers posing as police kept them under a fake “digital arrest” and extracted ₹1.10 crore over 18 days. - The victims were an 85-year-old retired Food Corporation of India employee, his retired vice-principal wife and their 47-year-old daughter, who were told terrorists used SIM cards in his name. - Mumbai has been running senior-citizen awareness drives against “digital arrest” scams, which have no basis in law and have cost victims more than ₹100 crore. (indianexpress.com)
A Ghatkopar family told Mumbai Police that scammers posing as police officers extorted ₹1.10 crore by putting them under a fake “digital arrest” between April 5 and April 22. (hindustantimes.com) (freepressjournal.in) The complainant is a 47-year-old woman from Ghatkopar who said her 85-year-old father first got a WhatsApp audio call from a man calling himself police officer Ranjit Kumar. (hindustantimes.com) The caller said terrorists arrested in Tamil Nadu in February were carrying SIM cards issued in the father’s name and told the family he had to prove his innocence. (hindustantimes.com) When the family said the elderly parents could not travel to Lucknow, the call shifted to video and another man in police uniform identified himself as Shivkumar Pandey. He then claimed a private-bank account in the father’s name had been used to launder about ₹80 lakh. (hindustantimes.com) The men told the family to lock themselves in a room, stay available on WhatsApp video calls every two hours and tell no one because they were now “witnesses” in a terror case. Police said the scammers also sent forged arrest warrants and Supreme Court asset-seizure orders. (hindustantimes.com) The family then liquidated fixed deposits and transferred the money in multiple transactions after the callers asked about their property, investments and gold jewellery. The case was registered after the daughter approached police. (hindustantimes.com) (freepressjournal.in) Indian law does not recognize any such thing as a “digital arrest.” Mumbai Police and Indian Express have described the scheme as a coercion scam in which callers pretend to be from agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation, Enforcement Directorate or police. (indianexpress.com) Mumbai Police have been visiting senior citizens at home to warn them about the fraud, after city officers said such cases increasingly target elderly people living alone. (indianexpress.com) (financialexpress.com) The scale has been large: Indian Express reported on April 1, 2026, that Mumbai recorded 191 “digital arrest” cases in 2025 with losses above ₹100 crore, after 193 such cases in 2024 and 27 more through February 2026. (indianexpress.com) This case ends where it began: a phone call, a uniform on video and a demand to stay silent. Mumbai Police are now investigating who received the transfers and who staged the fake arrest. (hindustantimes.com)
