2 held in Rs 3.4-cr ‘digital arrest’ scam

Chandigarh: A cyber cell team of Chandigarh police arrested two persons for allegedly duping a retired colonel of Rs 3.4 crores in a digital arrest scam.
The cyber police said the accused were identified as Mahak Yadav (25), a resident of Narnaul, Haryana, and Sachin Sharma (23), a resident of Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan.
After registering the case on April 5, police conducted a raid in Narnaul and arrested Mahak Yadav. He disclosed that an amount of Rs 1.05 crore was received in his account, and he took an amount of Rs 1.2 lakh as commission.
During further investigation, police remand was obtained, and one more accused, namely Sachin Sharma alias Monu, was arrested from Jaipur, Rajasthan, on April 7. Two mobile phones were recovered from both the accused, and the data from their mobiles is being analysed.
It all started when Col Dilip Singh (retd) and his wife Ranvinder Kaur Bajwa, residents of Sector 2, Chandigarh, received a WhatsApp call from an unknown number on March 18. The caller falsely accused him of being involved in money laundering connected to a Canara Bank account in Mumbai. The perpetrators claimed that Naresh Goyal, the imprisoned Jet Airways owner, implicated Col Bajwa, alleging he sold the account for Rs 5 lakh and received Rs 20 lakh for laundering Rs 2 crore.
The perpetrators displayed Col Bajwa's ATM card during a video call to appear legitimate and claimed to be investigating a Rs 5,038-crore fraud. They sent images of 24 supposed victims, claiming one died by suicide and a whistleblower and his family were killed by Naresh Goyal.
The fraudsters confined the couple digitally for 10 days from March 18-27, requiring them to keep their phones active and prohibiting external communication. They threatened imprisonment and property confiscation, sent fake Supreme Court documents via WhatsApp, and demanded financial disclosure under the pretext of a black money investigation.
The couple was compelled to transfer money to various accounts between March 18-27, totalling Rs 3.4 crore, depleting their entire life savings. After realising he was conned, the retired colonel filed a complaint at the cyber police station in Sector 17.