Posing as police officials from the ‘Mumbai crime branch’, cyber fraudsters duped an 83-year-old retired army officer by threatening to foist a fake case against him and made away with ₹56 lakh from his bank accounts.
Based on the complaint filed by a resident of Cunningham Road, the central division cybercrime police on Tuesday registered a case against unknown people charging them under the IT act and under section 318(4) (cheating) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
According to the complainant, on October 27, he received a call on his mobile and the caller introduced himself as Sanjay Pishe, inspector with the Mumbai police. The caller informed him that a case has been booked against him for harassing public through the mobile phone and the SIM was registered in his name.
He asked him to appear before the Mumbai police, failing which he would be arrested. Pishe later asked his colleague to coordinate with another fake officer, identified as Kavitha Pomane, who offered to help and conduct the probe through video call when the victim said he could not travel to Mumbai due to his age. She roped in another fake officer identified as Vishwas and the duo asked him not to disclose this to anyone.
He followed their instructions and shared all his family details, bank accounts, and personal details .They told him to that they would be freezing the account for a few days to check the transactions as per the RBI guidelines as it was a suspected money-laundering.
The accused accessed his bank accounts and until November 12, transferred ₹56,05,200, including the mutual funds after liquidating them. They promised to return the transferred money in three days and vanished.
The fraud came to light when there was no response. The police have advised people not to entertain such calls and report such matters to their family members or call 1930 for immediate help.
In a similar incident, cyber fraudsters posing as the Mumbai police threatened a 71-year-old man with human-trafficking and money-laundering case and made away with ₹2.12 crore on November 5.
The victim, a resident of Channasandra, was approached by the accused over the phone stating that a complaint has been registered against him. They forced him to share the bank account details before transferring the savings and escaped.
The Whitefield police have registered a case.
Published – November 20, 2025 09:39 pm IST
