Cuttack: An ex-Army officer from Cuttack has been robbed of over Rs 1 crore after he was trapped in a digital arrest scam.
Cuttack ADCP Amarendra Panda said that the incident occurred on November 18 when the former Army officer received a video call around noon showing some people sitting in what looked like an office. They posed as officials of some organisation and the caller identified himself as an official of the Narcotics Control Bureau. He told the ex-Army officer that he had multiple phone numbers active on his Aadhaar card number and there are allegations of money laundering against him. They also said that g he is involved in illegal activities such as defrauding money from various banks with foreign links. His phone number is linked to multiple drug lords abroad and so he is being digitally arrested.
The man further told the ex-Army officer that he would be tried in a special CBI court on the following day and asked him to attend it.
On November 19, the ex-Army man received another video call on WhatsApp where he saw a room that seemed to be a courtroom. He was then interrogated by a man sitting as a judge, who said that the ex-Army officer would not be granted bail in the charges against him. He directed the ex-Army officer to transfer money to a bank account and assured that once the case was settled, the deposited money would be returned to his account. Scared, the former army officer transferred Rs 67 lakh on the same day and on December 20, he sent another Rs 37 lakh.
After receiving the money the cyber fraudsters told him that the case against him was over. After this, for some reason, the ex-Army officer suspected that he was a victim of fraud and reported him to the cyber police station on Tuesday.
After a preliminary investigation of the incident, the police found that the call came from Mumbai. The police are checking the number and IP address.
