Two men, Himmat Devani (58) and Atul Goswami (46), both from Gujarat, were arrested by Indore police on charges of defrauding a 71-year-old man of Rs 40.7 lakh in a sophisticated online scam. The incident took place on October 3, when the victim was duped into transferring the large sum after receiving a fake call from a person posing as a Bandra police officer.
According to Rajesh Tripathi, DCP of Crime Branch, the scam began when the victim received a WhatsApp call from a person impersonating a police officer. The caller claimed that the victim owed a 15% commission on a Rs 2.6 crore transaction from a Mumbai-based bank. To make the story seem more convincing, the fraudsters sent forged documents, including a fake Supreme Court order, and claimed that police and CBI officers were planning to arrest the victim.
The victim was then connected to someone pretending to be a CBI officer, who demanded sensitive bank account details and instructed him to transfer money into an RBI account for verification purposes. Believing the story, the victim transferred Rs 40.7 lakh to the provided account.
The victim only realized he had been scammed when the money was not returned, prompting him to file a police complaint.
During their investigation, Indore police tracked down one of the accused, Himmat Devani, who was attempting to flee to Nepal. Atul Goswami was arrested from Gujarat. Both men admitted to providing bank accounts to facilitate the fraud. The police are now questioning the accused further to identify other members of the gang involved and uncover more details of the operation.
This case highlights the growing menace of digital scams targeting vulnerable individuals, and authorities are working to track down the full network behind the fraud.
