Overview
- Mumbai Police opened an investigation after the victim reported the fraud on May 3 via the 1930 cybercrime helpline and filed a cyber cell complaint on May 4.
- The scheme began on March 10 with a Signal video call from an account labeled “ATS Department,” where a caller using the name PSI Singh posed as an anti-terror officer and threatened to tie him to the Delhi bomb blasts and money laundering.
- The impostors kept the retired bank manager under continuous video surveillance, ordered him to stay alone in a room, and told him not to speak to anyone.
- Under pressure he sent Rs 2.90 lakh, sold shares worth Rs 29 lakh with about Rs 28 lakh diverted, and later paid Rs 10 lakh as supposed bail security raised through a loan, after which the callers cut contact.
- The scammers cited a fake Supreme Court order and claims of an Aadhaar-linked account in Karnataka to appear legitimate, and police are now tracing multiple recipient bank accounts where funds were spread to obscure the trail.