CHENNAI: A Cyber crime team from Chennai Police arrested a 38-year-old man from Assam for duping several persons including a retired central government official from Chennai by ‘Digital Arrest’ scam.

On checking his bank accounts, police found that he had received Rs 3.8 crore in a single day.

City police acted on a complaint from a retired administrative officer of Central Public Works Department (CPWD) based in Thiruvanmiyur.

On September 3, a man claiming to be Maharashtra police called the victim and told him that an arrest warrant is pending against him and demanded ID proof and other details and instructed him to appear at Mumbai in connection with a money laundering case.

The call was then forwarded to the Senior Telecommunication Officer, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and enquired about family and banking details and instructed to be on WhatsApp video call until enquiry completed.

They informed that his phone is under tracking and not to tell anyone about his digital arrest.

The next day, the victim was instructed to liquidate all his fixed deposits and transfer them to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the amount will be returned after due verification. Afraid of the same, the complainant transferred Rs.57 lakh and another Rs 35 lakh.

Only after enquiring with family members, he realised he was cheated and filed a police complaint.

A special team traced the money trail and went to Guwahati, Assam after learning that the bank account to which he money was transferred belonged to Harshi Healthcare Services Pvt Ltd, owned by Partha Pratim Bora (38)

Investigations revealed that he received Rs 3.82 crore from eight transactions and transferred the amount to 178 bank accounts belonging to his handlers on a single day.

He was produced before a magistrate there and after obtaining a transit warrant, he was brought to the city and remanded to judicial custody.

Chennai Police Commissioner A Arun warned public to be wary of such ‘Digital arrest’ scamsters and advised them to report immediately on cybercrime helpline number 1930 and website address https:// cybercrime.gov.in. in case of loss of money to cyber fraudsters.