81-year-old doctor duped of Rs 1.3 crore by fake CBI officers

Kochi: In a shocking case of cyber fraud targeting medical professionals, an 81-year-old senior doctor from Kochi allegedly lost Rs 1.3 crore after being trapped in a fake criminal case.

According to media reports, the fraudsters posed as CBI officers and threatened the doctor to transfer money if he wanted to avoid being shamed on social media. So far, two accused have been named in the FIR, Devilal Singh and Pranav Dhayal.

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The incident took place between November 1 and November 6, when the doctor received phone and WhatsApp video calls from the accused, who claimed to be CBI and telecom department officials. They told the doctor that his phone number was linked to criminal activities.

They convinced him that criminal activities were done using a phone number associated with him. On November 4, the accused told the doctor that a case had been registered over the crimes and asked for details of his investments, saying they needed to verify his income sources.

Following this, the accused forced him to transfer Rs 1.3 crore from his bank account to another account through RTGS transfer. After receiving the money, the accused warned him not to inform anyone, threatening to leak his identity on social media and defame him.

When the doctor realised that he had been duped, he approached the police and filed a complaint. Based on his complaint, the police registered a case under Section 316 (criminal breach of trust), 318 (cheating) and 351 (criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 66D of the IT Act, which deals with cheating by impersonation using computer resources.

Speaking on this, a police officer told TOI, "A significant amount of the defrauded money has been frozen by the bank, and we are hoping to make a recovery through legal process."

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