Chennai: Padma Bhushan awardee and a scientist, T Ramasamy, was duped of Rs 57 lakh by cyber fraudsters, who digitally arrested him for a week while posing as law enforcement officers, police said on Monday .
Ramasamy (77), a resident of Chennai, is a former secretary of the Department of Science and Technology and currently works as a visiting professor in the Department of Leather Technology at Anna University, Chennai.
According to police, the incident took place in September and based on complaint, a case was registered at Chennai Cyber Crime Unit on November 6. Investigations are currently underway, they said.
In his complaint, Ramasamy told police that in September, he received a call from an unknown number at around 11:30 am and the caller claimed to be from the Department of Telecommunications. The caller told Ramasamy's that a SIM card had been purchased in Delhi using his Aadhaar card details, and 14 complaints had been filed with the Delhi Police regarding illegal activities that were carried out using that SIM.
The caller directed Ramasamy to appear in person at the Delhi police station within an hour. Shocked at this, the scientist explained that he lived in Chennai and will not be able to reach Delhi within such a short time. After this, the caller said he would transfer the call to Delhi Police and they will speak to him directly.
Following this, another person, claiming to be a Delhi police officer, instructed him to join a WhatsApp video call. Ramasamy said he did not use WhatsApp but they insisted so he downloaded the application and spoke to them via video call.
During the call, a person in a Delhi Police uniform appeared and pressured Ramasamy to be alone. Then, he introduced himself as Mohan Singh, Assistant Sub-Inspector of the Delhi Police, and showed him a copy of an FIR and its number, claiming it was registered in Ramasamy's name. Although Ramasamy pleaded that he had not done anything wrong, he was continuously threatened for about four hours.
Furthermore, the person claimed that a bank account had been opened in Ramasamy's name at a Canara Bank branch in Mumbai and showed Ramasamy's Aadhaar card copy and a debit card during the video call. They also said that a person named Sattar Khan had been arrested by the CBI and had confessed to selling Ramasamy's Aadhaar details for Rs 10 lakh.
Next, a person introduced himself as Keerthi Sanyal, a senior CBI officer, and threatened Ramasamy, saying, "Since this case is related to the National Security Act, you should not discuss these matters with anyone." They also showed him photographic documents and threatened him, claiming that an arrest warrant had been issued against him.
Subsequently, they told Ramasamy that his bank accounts needed to be verified according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) procedures. They then forced him to transfer money through Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) to bank account specified by them. Ramasamy transferred a total of Rs 57 lakh in two installments, Rs 30 lakh on September 15 and Rs 27 lakh on September 16.