A 75-year-old retired Pune Metro officer from Pashan has filed a complaint with the Baner police, alleging that online fraudsters cheated him of Rs 48 lakh by threatening to arrest him in connection with child pornography and money laundering cases. The incident occurred between March 23 and April 13.
Fraudsters Posed as TRAI and Crime Branch Officials
The suspects impersonated officials from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Mumbai Crime Branch. Senior Inspector Chandrashekar Sawant of Baner police stated, 'As soon as the complainant approached us, we uploaded his banking transaction details on the government's cybercrime portal. Following this, the accounts traced in the money trail were frozen. These were the first and second layers of accounts in the scam. There were over 20 such bank accounts.'
'The collective amount of money in these accounts was Rs 40 lakh,' Sawant added.
How the Scam Unfolded
Sawant explained, 'The suspects made a video call to the elderly officer on his messaging application. Initially, the conmen claimed they were TRAI officials. They alleged that the retired officer was involved in child pornography and had transmitted many such clips on social media sites. They threatened to arrest him soon.'
'Later, the suspects sought details of his bank account for verification purposes. The retired officer shared his bank account details. The suspects then claimed that his bank account had been used by fraudsters and a former aviation businessperson for money laundering and transactions running into a few crores of rupees,' Sawant said.
'They threatened to arrest him in both cases and even sent him a fake arrest warrant. They threatened to defame him by arresting him,' he added.
Subsequently, the fraudsters promised not to arrest him and to settle the cases against him. 'The fraudsters then shared details of five bank accounts with the retired officer, and he transferred Rs 48 lakh to these accounts,' Sawant said.
The police have frozen multiple accounts and are investigating the matter further.
