Hyderabad: Cyber fraudsters posing as CBI personnel threatened to arrest a 73-year-old retired district judge in a money-laundering case and made him transfer 1.66 crore to their bank accounts.On the victim’s complaint, Malkajgiri cybercrime police registered a digital arrest case on Friday. The retired judge from Neredmet received a phone call on Feb 23 from a man claiming to be senior CBI officer Deepak Kumar.The caller alleged that two mobile numbers linked to the victim’s Aadhaar were being used to make objectionable calls to women and that an FIR had been registered against him at the Indiranagar police station in Bengaluru. Subsequently, another fraudster, introducing himself as circle inspector Gourav Saradhi, joined the conference call and asserted that the former judge was also accused in a human-trafficking case.The impostors claimed that a non-bailable warrant had been issued against the victim by the Supreme Court and instructed him to draft a letter admitting that his Aadhaar had been misused, while warning him not to discuss the matter with anyone, including family or friends.The intimidation escalated when a woman posing as senior CBI officer Archana Ramasundaram contacted the victim through WhatsApp video calls and showed a document bearing the Supreme Court emblem. Accusing him of money laundering, human trafficking and identity theft, the gang demanded details of his bank accounts for ‘financial assessment’, claiming that the money would be refunded after the inquiry.Fearing arrest and reputational damage, the retired judge transferred 1.66 crore between Feb 25 and March 2 from his three bank accounts in four transactions to different accounts specified by the fraudsters. As the accused did not refund his money as promised, the victim finally confided in friends and realised he had been deceived.He approached Malkajgiri cybercrime police, and a case was registered under Sections 316(2) (criminal conspiracy), 318(4) (cheating), 319(2) (cheating by personation), 338 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc.) and 308(2) (punishment for extortion) of the BNS, along with Sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act.
