Panchkula: In a serious case of cyber fraud, scammers hacked the WhatsApp account of a former Haryana director general of police (DGP) and used his identity to obtain money from people in his contact list.According to the complaint, the incident occurred on March 9, when former DGP Kanwar Nirmal Singh received a call from an unknown number. The caller falsely claimed that a parcel had arrived and asked him to dial a code to receive it. In the process, the fraudsters captured the one-time password (OTP) and gained unauthorised access to his WhatsApp account by logging into it on another device.After taking control of the account, the accused sent messages to several contacts, posing as the former DGP and citing an emergency to seek financial assistance. Believing the request to be genuine, a police employee, Gulshan Kumar, who had earlier served as Singh’s gunman, transferred Rs 40,000 to a bank account shared by the scammers.Following the complaint, a case was registered at the Cyber Crime Police Station, Panchkula, under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. A special investigation team was constituted under the supervision of Cyber SHO Yudhveer Singh, with SI Saurabh Singh as the investigating officer.During the probe, technical analysis revealed that the defrauded amount had been credited to a bank account belonging to Rajesh Kumar, a resident of Nalanda district in Bihar. Acting on the lead, a police team conducted a raid and arrested Kumar on March 29, recovering the defrauded amount from him.The accused was produced before a court and remanded to judicial custody. Police officials said efforts are on to trace and arrest the prime accused who allegedly orchestrated the fraud.
