Police claimed on Friday that a lady doctor in Noida was allegedly tricked out of ₹45 lakh lately by cybercriminals posing as Mumbai crime branch officials over a video call. They forced her to transfer the money under the guise of a “investigation into her bank accounts.”
Officers claim that the frauds placed the 51-year-old complainant, Dr. Aarti Choudhary, of Delhi’s Vasundhara Enclave, under a “digital arrest.” By keeping an eye on her via video conference and threatening to harm her if she disconnected, they effectively restricted her movements.
Police have filed a case under several sections of the Indian Penal Code and pertinent parts of the IT Act in response to her complaint. Chaudhary, who owns a clinic in Sector 49, reported in her complaint lodged with the Cyber Crime Police Station in Sector 36, Noida, that she got a call on May 6 from a person claiming to be a courier service executive.
He claimed that a package shipped from Mumbai to Thailand under her name had come back and been intercepted by customs officers.
Chaudhary’s complaint stated, “Ishan Verma, the caller, stated that the parcel contained 140 grams of MDMA (meth), five passports, two credit cards, and four kilograms of clothing.”
He transferred the video conversation and warned her that unless she filed a complaint with the Mumbai crime division about her name being “mistakenly” printed on a package containing drugs, she would face consequences.
“I was connected to a person known only as Rajveer. He instructed me to connect with him via the Skype video chat program. During that video conversation, Rajveer wanted to see my Aadhaar card and got all of my personal and bank information. The complaint continues, “He then informed me that some money laundering tranasactions had also been connected to my bank account.”
“Aditya Keshav, a third male, joined the call as well,” she alleged. “Keshav promised me that he could use 24-hour video monitoring to swiftly exonerate me of all charges. If not, I would have to travel to Mumbai, where I would be placed under arrest for ninety days.
I tried to call a friend of mine at CBI, but the individuals on the video chat became enraged and started berating me. Therefore, I didn’t get in touch with anyone,” she said in her grievance.
The con artists allegedly forced Chaudhary to transfer her ₹45 lakh into their account the next day, May 7. “The men who pretended to be officials gave me the number of a bank account and told me that I needed to transfer all of the money in that account so they could look into it. This is their’surveillance’ account.”
Using an RTGS (real-time gross settlement) money transfer, I followed their instructions. I accomplished this, and then they started requesting an additional ₹50 lakh. However, I lacked that. The report reads, “I got suspicious and called the cyber helpline number 1930 and disconnected the Skype call with the frauds.”
Based on her comments, the police have filed a case in accordance with the IT Act provisions as well as sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing handover of property) and 419 (punishment for cheating by personation) of the Indian Penal Code.
“The woman’s allegation against unnamed suspects has led to the registration of a formal complaint against them. Vinod Yadav, the station house officer of the cybercrime police station in Sector 36, Noida, stated that the matter is being looked into.
