61-year-old retired Sangli teacher duped in digital scam in Jan; two arrested from Pune

Kolhapur:The Sangli cyber police have arrested two alleged digital scamsters from Pune for duping a 61-year-old retired Navodaya School teacher of Rs 59 lakh by posing as police and central agency personnel, and threatening him with arrest in a fake case. The accused allegedly coerced the victim into breaking his fixed deposits and senior citizen savings scheme before transferring the money.The arrested men have been identified as 38-year-old Abu Hussain Samsul Alam of Hinge Township, Hadapsar, and 34-year-old Sushil Akil Ram of Magarpatta City. Both are originally of West Bengal.“They were arrested from their place of residence. The 38-year-old is the handler, and the 34-year-old accused is someone who gets mule bank accounts and transfers money into hundreds of other accounts, in small amounts each time. At the time of the complaint in March, we had put a freeze on a Rs 3.5 lakh transfer from the complainant's account to one of the accounts both accused were handling. We learnt the pattern of transactions and found that one of the accounts had Rs 29 lakh transferred from the complainant’s account. The scam was run from their home. We have recovered several mobile phones, debit and credit cards, bank cheque books, pass books, and mobile SIMs from both places,” said Rupali Bobade, assistant police inspector, Sangli cyber police station.The police said the handler paid about 5% commission for each mule account. “There are very few cases of digital arrest scams in which the police have nabbed the handlers. In this case, the complainant can get Rs 3.5 lakh that we had frozen after the court orders to do so. We are further investigating where the money was sent. The court has granted us seven-day custody of the accused,” the officer added.According to the complaint, the victim received a call on Jan 8 from a person posing as a telecom official, claiming an FIR had been registered against him. The call was then transferred to a fake police station where he was told his mobile number was linked to harassment of women and that he needed a “clearance certificate”. He was asked to report to a Bengaluru police station.Later, he received WhatsApp calls from a caller identifying himself as “Ajay Patil”, who threatened arrest and connected him to another person claiming to be “Daya Nayak”. The latter’s display carried a CBI logo, and he alleged that a human trafficking accused had been found with the complainant’s Aadhaar details. Over the next few days, the fraudsters repeatedly pressured Patil, asking whether he was “cooperating” or had approached local police. On Jan 12, they told him that a “Supreme Court auditor” needed to verify his funds and forced him to liquidate his deposits and transfer the money via RTGS into two accounts on Jan 13 and 14.The scammers further demanded Rs 47 lakh as a “security deposit”, claiming the currency serial numbers matched crime proceeds and showing forged income tax orders and an arrest warrant. When Patil said he had no money left, he approached relatives, who realised he had been cheated.Patil filed a complaint in the first week of March following which a case was registered on March 11 and transferred to the cyber police, who traced and arrested the accused. Further investigation is underway to track the money trail.