Ahmedabad: A 75-year-old retired professor was allegedly placed under “digital arrest” for nearly three weeks by cyberfraudsters posing as officers from central investigative agencies and duped of Rs 54.6 lakh, according to her complaint filed on Wednesday.On Aug 3, she received a call from a person identifying himself as Anuj Agarwal from the “TRAY department”. He allegedly told her that a sim card issued on the basis of her Aadhaar card, had been used to send obscene photographs and videos, and that around 25 FIRs had been registered against the mobile-number user.The caller then allegedly connected her with people on WhatsApp video calls who showed her what they claimed were FIRs, official documents and an ATM card bearing her photograph. The fraudsters allegedly told her that her name had surfaced in a money-laundering case linked to businessman Naresh Goyal.They warned her that the matter involved national security and instructed her not to share details of the proceedings with anyone, threatening to file another case against her if she did. She was also allegedly asked to disclose when she was alone at home and to send daily “good morning” and “good night” messages to confirm that she was safe.On Aug 10, another caller allegedly introduced himself as Samadhan Parmar and told her that CBI would examine her assets. She was allegedly asked to disclose details of her bank accounts, mutual funds and property. The fraudsters then allegedly instructed her to redeem her mutual funds.On Aug 14, the accused allegedly told her to transfer money to accounts for “verification” by Reserve Bank of India. She subsequently made four RTGS transfers between Aug 18 and 21, sending Rs 20 lakh, Rs 12.9 lakh, Rs 13 lakh, Rs 2 lakh, Rs 2 lakh and Rs 4.7 lakh — totalling Rs 54.6 lakh — from different bank accounts.When fraudsters demanded more money on Aug 21, the woman refused. They then allegedly threatened her with arrest and told her that the case could continue for years and tarnish her reputation.She later stopped receiving responses to her messages and found that the WhatsApp conversation data had been deleted. Suspecting that she had been cheated, she contacted cybercrime helpline and lodged a complaint.
