Over 11 harrowing days, the elderly couple was psychologically manipulated, isolated in their home, and kept under constant video surveillance by fraudsters posing as high-ranking government officials.
The doctor shared that they were not allowed to turn off the video call, even at night. The constant light from the phone kept them awake — though sleep was nearly impossible with someone watching at all times. She recalled that whenever her phone ran out of battery or overheated, a call would be made to her husband's phone, and she would be forced to plug her phone back in immediately.
"We lost the money. But we can breathe now," says Dr S Lathika* (72), a former government homoeopathy doctor who retired as District Medical Officer. "If I had known about this fraud, I would never have answered the call... At the very least, I would have disconnected immediately," says her husband, Shankaran Bhattathiri* (69), a retired government school headmaster, reports Onmanorama.
The scammers controlled every aspect of their lives. The doctor’s husband mentioned that they had to seek permission even to step out to buy milk. If he failed to return within the allotted time, the couple would be subjected to yet another round of interrogation and threats of arrest.
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The doctor, who had a malignant lump in her breast and was scheduled for a consultation at the Mangalore Institute of Oncology, had to plead for eight days before being allowed to go on August 20. Even then, she rushed back in time for the 4 p.m. "check-in" to avoid threats of arrest and public shame. “I had cancer, but I was more worried about being arrested. That’s how scared we were,” she said.
The ordeal began on August 10, when the doctor received a call from an international number. The caller, claiming to be from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), said her name had surfaced in a money laundering investigation. Within minutes, she was video-called by someone claiming to be a CBI officer, complete with a fake emblem and a Malayalam-speaking “translator.”
The officer alleged that a raid conducted at the residence of former Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal led to the discovery of documents and bank details linked to Dr. Lathika. Displaying a Canara Bank ATM card on screen, he claimed it belonged to her and stated that the associated account had received ₹20 lakh since 2022.
From that point, the couple — deeply trusting and unaccustomed to the world of online fraud — were trapped.
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According to Onmanorama, the couple lives alone in a rented house in Kanhangad town. The two-storey building has two units on the ground floor and two on the first floor. They occupy one part of the first floor. "We didn’t build our own house or buy a car. We often thought of buying a home, but we were saving up for medical emergencies, because we have to take care of ourselves," Dr Lathika, her voice tinged with regret. "If we had bought a house, we wouldn't have lost this much money." Under pressure, the husband was made to visit banks and transfer large sums of money — ₹50 lakh, ₹70 lakh, ₹50 lakh, ₹20 lakh, and ₹50 lakh — over several days. Between August 13 and 21, the couple transferred ₹2.4 crore. The scamsters claimed the money was being “verified” in a Supreme Court account to prove their innocence in the fake money laundering case. Before each transaction, the couple was made to appear before a so-called “CBI judge” on WhatsApp video, further reinforcing the illusion. “They hypnotised us,” said the husband. “We didn’t think to call our family. We simply followed their orders.
The couple’s ordeal ended on August 21, when the doctor’s younger brother, a retired banker from Wayanad, visited. Concerned by her strange behaviour, he was pulled aside and told about the “CBI investigation.” Realizing they were being scammed, he took them to their bank and then to the Cyber Police Station.
Even then, the husband remained convinced the investigation was real and asked the scammers for permission to leave the house, claiming he needed to buy medicine. While at the police station, the scamsters video-called again to pressure him, but the police intercepted the call.
The transfers, made from Karnataka Bank and Bank of India, were routed to multiple accounts in Yes Bank, IndusInd Bank, and ICICI Bank. A vigilant manager at Bank of India suspected something was wrong and tried to delay one of the transactions, but the husband repeated a rehearsed cover story: he was buying land to build a house.
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Kasaragod Cyber Police, investigating the case, said the last transaction of ₹50 lakh has been marked as a lien or withheld. "By the time we acted, much of it had already been disbursed in smaller amounts of Rs ₹lakh, ₹2 lakh, and ₹5 lakh across various bank accounts," said Raveendran, an officer at the station. All the money in these accounts has now been marked as a lien. "We suspect the scammers were operating out of a Southeast Asian country, possibly Cambodia," he said, reports Onmanorama.
A day after the case was registered, the couple received one last message from the scammers: “Good morning.” They chose not to respond.
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