Adajan woman loses ₹73L in month of ‘digital arrest’ deception

Surat: A 55-year-old woman from Adajan was cheated of Rs 73 lakh by cyber criminals who accused her of being linked to terror funding, money laundering and hawala transactions while posing as officials from multiple law-enforcement agencies.

Surat cybercrime police registered an FIR and launched an investigation into the case.

According to the complaint, the woman got a call from an unknown number on Sep 30. The woman caller, claiming to be from the Data Protection Board of India, told her that several suspicious mobile numbers had been issued using her Aadhaar card. The call was transferred to one Avinash Patel, who claimed that 20 mobile numbers had been obtained using her documents in Jammu & Kashmir, Bihar, Rajasthan and Nashik in Maharashtra.

Patel connected her to a man who introduced himself as Gajendra Rajput, an officer of Panchvati police station in Nashik.

Rajput sent her a complaint purportedly lodged by 20 people and threatened her with arrest. He also forwarded a fake letter on the Mumbai Police letterhead and claimed that she was involved in Popular Front of India (PFI) terror funding, money laundering and hawala transactions.