Mumbai, 18 September 2026: Mumbai Cyber Police called a big scam in the name of 'digital arrest' and imposed a fine of Rs. Six members of the gang that committed fraud worth Rs 1.12 crore have been arrested. In this shocking incident, the accused had mentally tortured a 68-year-old retired businessman from Dahisar by keeping him under 'digital arrest' at home for about two weeks and extorted huge amount of money from him. A web developer graduated from IIT Delhi and an operations manager of a private bank are also among the arrested accused.
According to police investigation, during the months of July and August, fraudsters had contacted the old man posing as officials of the Telecom Department. He had claimed that the old man's Aadhaar card details had been used in a money laundering case in Delhi. After this, a person named 'Vijay Khanna' made a video call and pretended to be a senior officer in police uniform.
To scare the victims, fake government logos and Supreme Court documents were shown. The old man was threatened that if he did not cooperate, his family members would also be arrested. By keeping a constant eye on the old man, the thieves forced him to send his location every two hours and kept him under digital arrest at home for two weeks. Under fear and mental pressure, the old man had broken all his fixed deposits and a total of Rs. 1.12 crores were transferred by the accused to different bank accounts.
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Where did the money reach and how was it collected?
North Cyber Police, while investigating the financial transactions, came to know that this amount had reached the bank account of a gold dealer (jewelers) company.
Mule Accounts: Bogus bank accounts were managed by an accused named Tariq Momin.
OTP Handling: Shankar Tyagi (bank manager) and G Gohel (IIT graduate) helped in obtaining OTP by using the SIM card in the name of company director Rakesh Jain.
Cash Withdrawal: Accused Chintan Desai had gone to Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh with a smart device, from where this amount was withdrawn in cash from different bank accounts.
This entire scam was exposed when the victim businessman's daughter became suspicious of the entire incident and contacted the cyber police. North Cyber Police immediately started investigation and arrested Tariq Momin, Rakesh Jain, Chintan Desai, Shankar Tyagi, G Gohel and Ajay Sharma on the basis of money trail. Currently, the further investigation of this case is being done by Senior Inspector Pramod Kamble and Inspector Sunil Lokhande under the guidance of DCP Bajrang Bansode.