Three tricity residents were allegedly duped of a total of over ₹1 crore in separate digital arrest cases, prompting police to register complaints.
Two Kharar residents were allegedly duped of a combined ₹75 lakh by fraudsters who posed as police and National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials and threatened to arrest them in separate digital arrest cases. Police have registered two separate cases.
In the first case, a 78-year-old retiree from the Punjab civil secretariat and a resident of Sunny Enclave, Sector 125, allegedly transferred ₹30.5 lakh to bank accounts specified by callers who claimed he was implicated in money laundering cases.
According to the FIR, the fraud began on September 16, when an unidentified caller introduced himself as a senior inspector at Chandigarh Police Headquarters. He told the victim that investigators had linked him to money laundering and sent him a notice on WhatsApp. The caller then directed him to contact a person identifying himself as Prem Kumar Gautam, who claimed to be an anti-terrorist force official and asked him to transfer money for verification.
Another caller, who identified himself as an NIA official Chander Bhan Singh, later threatened to issue arrest warrants unless he made further payments, the complaint stated.
The complainant transferred ₹15 lakh on September 22, ₹6.5 lakh on September 28 and ₹9 lakh on October 1 through real-time gross settlement (RTGS) transactions from his bank account. He filed a complaint on October 2, following which police registered FIR 0084 under Sections 318(4) and 61(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Section 66D of the Information Technology Act. Inspector Kailash Bahadur is investigating the case.
In the second case, a couple residing in Sector 125 allegedly lost ₹45 lakh after callers posing as anti-terrorist squad (ATS) and NIA officials threatened them with arrest over an alleged terror-funding inquiry.
The FIR states that the complainants received a call on October 9 from a person identifying himself as Ranjit Kumar of the ATS in Chandigarh. He claimed that an inquiry had traced ₹70 lakh in illegal transfers to an HDFC Bank account held by the couple. The callers later connected them on a video call with a man in police uniform who claimed to be the NIA chief and questioned why they had not been arrested.
The couple transferred ₹35 lakh to an account linked to a private firm “MMABS” and another ₹10 lakh to a Bank of India account. The callers promised to issue a clearance certificate within 72 hours but later switched off their phones, the complaint stated. The couple reported the fraud through the 1930 cybercrime helpline on October 16.
Police registered the case under Section 318(4) of the BNS and Section 66 of the IT Act. Inspector Gauravbans Singh is investigating.
In another case from Panchkula, an 84-year-old retired army and Chandigarh Police officer was allegedly duped of ₹41 lakh by cyber fraudsters who threatened him with arrest through a fake digital arrest scam.
The Panchkula cyber crime police registered an FIR on Sunday on the complaint of the Sector 15 resident who retired from Chandigarh Police as an assistant sub-inspector (ASI).
According to the complaint, the fraud began on August 25 when he received calls from several mobile numbers. The callers allegedly posed as IPS officer Pardeep Singh of Delhi Police and claimed that his Aadhaar card had been misused to obtain SIM cards linked to illegal financial transactions.
The fraudsters allegedly threatened to arrest him and his wife and even claimed that his children living abroad would also be implicated. They sent him fabricated documents bearing the name of the Union ministry of finance and warned him against discussing the matter with anyone.
Under pressure, the victim allegedly transferred ₹25 lakh through RTGS on September 3 to an ICICI Bank account and another ₹16 lakh on September 7 to a Federal Bank account in the name of AKS Land and Developers.
He later learnt that he had been cheated and approached the police. The FIR has been registered under Sections 316(2), 318(4), 336(3), 338, 340 and 61 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Ravinder Kumar has been assigned the investigation.