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Delhi Police Probes 'Digital Arrest' Scam That Cost NRI Doctor Couple Rs 14.85 Crore

Investigators are tracing bank accounts after fraudsters posing as telecom and Mumbai police kept the pair on video calls for more than two weeks.

Overview

  • An e-FIR has been registered and the case has been handed to Delhi Police’s Special Cell/IFSO, which says suspects are yet to be identified.
  • The victims, doctors Om Taneja, 81, and Indira Taneja, 77, were coerced between December 24 and January 9–10 into eight RTGS transfers totaling Rs 14.85 crore to multiple accounts.
  • Scammers impersonated TRAI and Colaba police, invoked money laundering and “national security,” and used a persona named Vikrant Singh Rajput to sustain pressure.
  • The couple were kept under continuous surveillance through video calls, were coached on what to tell bank staff, and were even made to draft letters, including to the Supreme Court.
  • The scheme unraveled when calls ceased and the couple, sent to a police station on the pretext of an RBI refund, learned it was fraud; police reiterated that no agency imposes remote ‘digital arrest’ and urged reporting via 1930.