Threatened with Digital Arrest, Kolkata doctor loses Rs 1 crore in cyber fraud

Kolkata: In a recent cyber fraud case, a Kolkata-based doctor allegedly lost Rs 1 crore after being threatened with a digital arrest in a fake money laundering case. The police have identified and arrested three fraudsters involved in the scam.

According to the police, the three accused were reportedly part of a racket that operates with the same modus operandi. They allegedly target people with a good financial background and extort money by threatening them.

This time, they targeted a doctor who was under the threat of arrest and was forced to transfer Rs 1 crore in three transactions. So far, police have recovered Rs 28.37 lakh of the stolen amount.

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The accused have been identified as 32-year-old Subrata Mallick, 36-year-old Pankaj Mallick, and 51-year-old Bishnu Agarwal.

As per The Telegraph news report, the incident took place after the doctor received a call from someone pretending to be a Mumbai police officer. The caller falsely claimed that the doctor’s name had come up in a money laundering case and warned him of immediate arrest. Frightened by the threat, the doctor ended up transferring Rs 1 crore in three separate transactions.

When he realized that he was duped, the doctor approached the Survey Park police station last November and filed a complaint against the accused. After the registration of an FIR, the investigation led to the arrest of these three, bringing the total number of people held in the case to six.

Earlier, three others- Suraj Kumar Singh, Arman Akhtar Khan, and Mohammad Jahinuddin were arrested in connection with the fraud. Singh was the holder of the bank account where the money was transferred, and Khan managed that account. Police said Jahinuddin collected the withdrawn cash from Khan.

The latest arrest came after police picked up Subrata Mallick from the Bangur area. During questioning, he gave information that led to the arrests of Pankaj Mallick and Bishnu Agarwal.

The newly arrested trio will be produced before the court on Wednesday.

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