The Special Task Force (STF) of Uttarakhand Police has arrested the main accused in a Rs45 lakh fraud case, involving a unique scam where the victim was intimidated by fraudsters pretending to be Mumbai police crime branch officials. The arrested suspect, identified as Pankaj Kumar, hails from Deoria, Uttar Pradesh, and was apprehended in Lucknow on Saturday.
The scam involved a fake ‘digital arrest’, a term that does not exist in Indian law, as clarified by Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) STF, Navneet Bhullar. He advised the public to report such fraudulent calls immediately to the police.
The incident came to light after a Kashipur resident filed a complaint in July 2024. The victim received a phone call on July 9, allegedly from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The caller claimed that 17 cases had been registered against the victim’s Aadhaar number and mobile number by the Mumbai crime branch, threatening the victim’s SIM card would be blocked.
The scam escalated when the victim was transferred to a fake police officer via a video call. The individual, who identified himself as Hemraj Kohli, appeared in a police uniform and presented fake IDs and official documents, including an FIR linking the victim to a Rs20 crore hawala scam. The caller pressured the victim to comply, claiming they were under “custody” during an ongoing investigation.
To add to the pressure, the fraudsters demanded the victim’s bank details, claiming the money needed to be “refined” to prove their innocence. They used fake Supreme Court rulings and other official documents to bolster their claims. Fearing for their safety, the victim transferred a total of ₹45.4 lakh via Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) on July 10.
Realizing the scam later, the victim approached the police, leading to an investigation by the STF. Using digital evidence, the STF traced the primary suspect, Pankaj Kumar. The police recovered the mobile phone used in the fraud, along with two SIM cards and a chequebook from Punjab National Bank (PNB).
The STF discovered that the accused had been operating multiple fake current accounts for cybercrimes, with several transactions worth crores recorded. Complaints and FIRs from multiple states have been linked to these accounts, further expanding the scope of the fraud.
