A 56-year-old resident of Talegaon Dabhade in Pune district was allegedly cheated of ₹29.99 lakh after fraudsters posing as Central Bureau of Investigation officers threatened to arrest him in a fabricated money-laundering case, police said.
The case relates to events between October 3 and 13 and was registered at Talegaon Dabhade police station on Monday, October 26, based on a complaint by Kedar Bhalchandra Bapat, a resident of Kalpavruksha Housing Society in Shavantnagar. The accused have been identified as S.K. Jaiswal and Samadhan Pawar, although their full names and addresses were not available, according to the police complaint.
Police said Bapat received a WhatsApp video call from an unknown mobile number. The caller allegedly introduced himself as CBI investigation officer S.K. Jaiswal and told Bapat that Jet Airways owner Naresh Goyal had carried out money laundering worth ₹538 crore. The caller further claimed that investigators had found 247 bank accounts linked to the case and that one of them was in Bapat’s name.
The fraudsters allegedly threatened Bapat with arrest and used the claim to obtain details of his fixed deposits and mutual fund investments with Punjab National Bank. They then pressured him to transfer the money through RTGS to bank accounts provided by them, police said.
The accused allegedly told Bapat that the Unique Transaction Reference numbers for his transfers would be compared with those linked to Naresh Goyal. According to the complaint, they falsely assured him that the money would be returned within 72 hours if the numbers did not match.
Bapat subsequently transferred a total of ₹29,99,000 from his Punjab National Bank account to multiple bank accounts specified by the accused. When the money was not returned and the callers’ phones were switched off, he realised that he had been defrauded and approached the police.
The case has been registered under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act. Police Inspector (Crime) Pravin Kamble’s investigation team is examining the mobile numbers and bank accounts allegedly used in the fraud. Police said preliminary information indicated that ₹3.5 lakh of the transferred amount had been placed on hold.
Senior Police Inspector Kishor Patil of Talegaon Dabhade police station warned residents that government agencies, investigating authorities and police officers do not threaten people with arrest through WhatsApp video calls or ask them to deposit money into bank accounts. He advised citizens who receive such calls not to transfer funds and to contact the national cybercrime helpline at 1930 or the local police immediately.
