Ahmedabad: A 55-year-old female doctor from Ahmedabad fell victim to a cyber scam, losing Rs 4 crore after being placed under a ‘digital arrest’ for 10 days. The Gujarat CID Cyber Crime cell arrested a 26-year-old MBA student from Mumbai, who was working as a caller for a Cambodia-based international gang.
The accused, Chetan Kokare, confessed to being recruited by a criminal organization run by Chinese and Cambodian nationals. He had joined the gang about five months ago while pursuing his MBA in Mumbai. The gang hired individuals from India, Pakistan, and Nepal to impersonate law enforcement officers, including officials from the ED, CBI, police, and Customs, to extort money under the guise of a ‘digital arrest’ scam.
The doctor was first contacted by a caller pretending to be an executive from a courier company. The caller claimed that a parcel in her name had been seized by the police for containing drugs and passports. The victim was then told to contact Mumbai’s cyber crime officials for a police clearance certificate. During a video call, the caller, impersonating a Mumbai crime branch DCP, threatened her with false charges and informed her that she was under ‘digital arrest.’
Over the next 10 days, the fraudsters pressured the doctor to transfer Rs 4 crore to settle the matter and avoid being falsely implicated. Realizing she had been scammed, the doctor later contacted authorities, leading to the arrest of Kokare.
Based on surveillance and technical inputs, the Gujarat CID tracked Kokare to Mumbai, where he was arrested in the Colaba area. Kokare admitted to being paid Rs 10 lakh over five months by the gang and revealed that they operated out of a building in Cambodia, with nearly 50 people involved in the racket. The gang specifically recruited people from India, Pakistan, and Nepal to impersonate police and government officials in order to carry out these fraudulent schemes.
The Gujarat CID has described this as the first time they have arrested a caller involved in a ‘digital arrest’ scam in the state. In such scams, fraudsters use video calls to impersonate law enforcement officers, threatening victims with arrest over fabricated charges and demanding large sums of money to avoid legal action.
