‘Digital arrest’: 76-year-old man loses ₹70.90 lakh to Delhi youth

TENKASI The Cyber Crime Police have arrested two youth from Delhi for allegedly extracting ₹70.90 lakh from an old man in the guise of ‘digital arrest’. Police said a 76-year-old man in Tenkasi received a WhatsApp video call on August 31 last from a stranger, who was in police uniform. After introducing himself as a Mumbai-based police officer, he told the man that he had details about the latter transferring funds from his bank accounts to “terrorist organisations”.

After showing the old man’s Aadhaar number and photo, the stranger told him that he had been under ‘digital arrest’ for having funded the ‘terrorist organisation’. As the stranger told the old man to transfer funds to the account mentioned by him to get released from the ‘digital arrest’, he transferred ₹70.90 lakh through RTGS on various occasions. When he realised that online fraudsters had cheated him, he filed a complaint with the Tenkasi Cyber Crime Wing.

Inspector Vasanthi-led police team went to New Delhi to arrest S. Akash Kumar, 26, of Faridabad, and his associate Prasant Viswas, 31, of Dwaraka on October 29.