Posing as cops, three persons cheat woman of Rs 48.38 lakh

The cyber extortionists were identified as Aman Joshi from Ramkote, Prashanth, of Shahinayathgunj and Rohit Sharma from Kala Hanuman. The fraudsters repeated their extortion threats till she got emotionally distressed and attempted to die by suicide, a CCU officer said.

“On August 22 of last year, the CCU received a complaint from a woman, who reported that she had been targeted by Aman Joshi, whom she had initially met on a social messaging platform, city police commissioner C. V. Anand, told Deccan Chronicle.
“Joshi borrowed Rs 15,000 from the victim and did not repay it. The gang, impersonating the police, contacted her and accused her of possessing illegal gold linked to Aman Joshi,” Anand said.

Threatening the victim with arrest, they demanded Rs 1.6 lakh for bail, which was later increased to Rs 2 lakh.

The victim, fearing for her career and reputation, transferred funds to the accused under duress, the commissioner said.
“Our officers counselled the victim as she panicked after she suffered a financial loss totalling Rs 48.38 lakh. Based on her complaint we registered a case (3041 of 2024) under the IT Act and BNS. Our special teams identified and arrested the trio on Saturday, Anand said.

During interrogation the prime accused Joshi disclosed that he initiated contact with the victim, gained her trust and borrowed money.

Police seized three mobile phones, five cheque books of various banks, five debit cards, a credit card and three SIM cards, said city cybercrimes DCP Dara Kavitha. The accused along with the seized property have been produced before the court for judicial remand.