Two arrested for defrauding elderly man of Rs 40.7 lakh in MP's Indore through 'digital arrest' scam

Indore (Madhya Pradesh) [India], November 20 (ANI): Two persons have been arrested for allegedly defrauding a 71-year-old man of Rs 40.7 lakh in a case involving a fake "digital arrest" in Madhya Pradesh's Indore, police said on Wednesday.
The incident occurred on October 3. The accused were identified as Himmat Devani (58) and Atul Goswami (46), both from Gujarat.
The incident occurred last month on October 3 in the district. The accused have been identified as Himmat Devani (58), a resident of Surat, Gujarat and Atul Goswami (46), a resident of Kachchh, Gujarat.
DCP Crime Branch, Rajesh Tripathi said that the victim reported an online fraud. On October 3, the victim received a WhatsApp call from someone posing as a police officer from Bandra Police Station. The caller accused him of a 15 per cent commission from a Rs 2.6 crore re-transaction from a Mumbai bank.
To make the deception convincing, the fraudsters showed him forged documents, including a fake Supreme Court order, and claimed the police and CBI were going to arrest him.
The call was then transferred to someone impersonating a CBI officer, who demanded the victim's bank account details and instructed him to deposit his money into an RBI account for verification.
Believing the story, the victim transferred Rs 40.7 lakh but later realized he had been scammed when the money was not returned, and approached the police and lodged a complaint, DCP Tripathi said.
Acting on the complaint, a case was registered at Crime Branch Police Station under sections 318(4), 319(2), 336(3), 338, 340(2), 3(5) of Bharatiya Nyay Sahita, 2023 and an investigation was initiated.
During the investigation, police tracked down one of the accused, Himmat Devani, who was trying to flee to Nepal. Atul Goswami was arrested in Gujarat. The other accused, Atul Goswami was arrested from Gujarat. The accused admitted to providing bank accounts for the gang to facilitate the fraud, DCP Tripathi said.
The Crime Branch is further interrogating the accused to identify other members of the gang and find out more details of the operation, he added. (ANI)