In a major breakthrough, cyber police arrested three individuals, including a Pune-based accountant, in connection with two digital arrest scams that defrauded elderly women of a combined Rs2.2 crore.
One of the prime accused, Ajay Divekar (40), an accountant from Pune, was nabbed after police traced Rs30 lakh transferred from the bank account of a 61-year-old retired teacher from Mahim. She had been conned into believing she was part of a covert drug investigation run by fake crime branch officers.
The scam began on January 22 when she received a call from someone posing as a courier agent about a suspicious package in her name. She was then connected to fake officials from the “crime branch” and later the “ED.” Over the course of a month, she was manipulated into transferring Rs1.7 crore under the guise of verification. The fraudsters even coerced her to mortgage her ancestral property before she discovered a cybercrime awareness video on YouTube and realized the fraud.
Following her complaint, cyber police under Senior Inspector Irfan Shaikh tracked the funds and arrested Divekar and his accomplice Nitin More, who reportedly worked for a commission of Rs15,000.
In a second, unrelated case, a 72-year-old retired executive from Borivli lost Rs49 lakh to a similar scam. She was falsely accused of being linked to a money laundering case via a call from a man pretending to be a CBI officer. The scammers instructed her to liquidate her fixed deposits under the pretext of financial verification.
The scam was uncovered when the woman sought a loan from a neighbor, who alerted her to the possibility of fraud. Upon investigation, North Region Cyber Police, led by Acting Senior Inspector Sudhakar Humbe, traced Rs14 lakh to an Ahmedabad resident, Ram Balwani. He revealed his account was being operated by Gopal Ram (30), who was later arrested in Ahmedabad on May 28.
Authorities are urging citizens to stay vigilant against such digital arrest scams and to report suspicious calls to cybercrime helplines.
