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Police Across India Probe Surge in 'Digital Arrest' Scams After Bengaluru Techie’s Rs 31.83 Crore Loss

Authorities report fresh cases, register FIRs, and warn that the fear-based coercion has no legal basis.

Overview

  • Kannada Home Minister G. Parameshwara called the Bengaluru case the state’s biggest online fraud and pledged firm action as police trace the network behind 187 coerced transfers.
  • An 80-year-old Mumbai woman transferred Rs 1.08 crore after callers impersonated TRAI staff, a Colaba officer, and DGP Rashmi Shukla, with an FIR citing multiple Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita sections and the IT Act.
  • A retired professor in Pune lost Rs 3.08 crore and a Pimpri-Chinchwad couple lost Rs 2.14 crore in separate FIRs, after fraudsters posed as police and central agency officers and ordered ‘verification’ transfers.
  • Kanpur police opened an investigation after a woman sent Rs 6.66 lakh when callers posing as ATS and NIA linked her to the recent Delhi blast and placed her under a so-called digital arrest.
  • Investigators describe layered mule accounts and crypto outflows; officials urge rapid reporting, noting limited recoveries such as about Rs 12 lakh frozen in one Pimpri-Chinchwad case.