Pune man loses Rs 22 Lakh to cyber fraudsters posing as Karnataka Police, CBI officers
Pune: A 71-year-old man from Pune was cheated of Rs 22 lakh by cyber fraudsters posing as senior Karnataka police officials and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officers, who threatened him with digital arrest, police said on Thursday.
The incident took place between October 5 and 15. The complainant, Chandraram Balanna Kuttapelli (71), a resident of Alandi Road, received a call from an unidentified mobile number. The caller allegedly introduced himself as a senior police official from Karnataka and later posed as a CBI officer.
The accused told the elderly man that his SIM card had been misused in a child trafficking case. To make the allegations appear genuine, they asked him to transfer money as a security deposit, claiming that the amount would be digitally verified.
The fraudsters subsequently threatened the complainant with digital arrest and allegedly coerced him into transferring a total of Rs 22 lakh to bank accounts provided by them.
Following the complaint, Vishrantwadi police registered a case on November 11 under Sections 319(2) and 318(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 66D of the Information Technology Act.
No arrests have been made in the case so far.
In a similar incident reported earlier on July 18, cyber fraudsters posing as CBI officials had threatened a 73-year-old Rahatani resident with prosecution in a money laundering case. They had forced him to transfer Rs 22 lakh to what they described as the ‘Supreme Court’s Secret Supervision Account’ for verification purposes. The fraud took place between June 29 and July 3.
The elderly man subsequently lodged a complaint with the cybercrime cell, following which Wakad police registered a case.
According to the complaint, an officer from Wakad police said the fraudsters contacted the victim while posing as IPS and CBI officers. They claimed that his Aadhaar card had been used to purchase a mobile phone and that a complaint had been filed against him.