A 68-year-old woman from Andheri West, Mumbai, has reported to police that she lost her entire life savings of ₹3.71 crore in a sophisticated digital arrest scam, where scammers set up a fake online court hearing and used a man dressed as a judge named ‘DY Chandrachud’ to frighten her.
Mumbai woman loses ₹3.71 crore in ‘Judge Chandrachud’ digital arrest scam
Read more: https://t.co/JygTNDvbLQ pic.twitter.com/Jh2Ka1fu8j— Bar and Bench (@barandbench) December 29, 2025
The case has been registered by the West Region Cyber Police, which is now investigating several unknown persons who posed as officials from the Mumbai Police, the Central Bureau of Investigation, and a magistrate. The scammers convinced the woman that she was being investigated in a serious money laundering case and that her arrest was imminent unless she followed their instructions.
According to the FIR, it all started on 18th August, when Dhanalakshmi Satyanarayana Rao Naidu got a call from someone calling himself Vijay Paul. He said her call was linked to Colaba Police Station. Right after, WhatsApp video calls came from two numbers. A guy named SK from Colaba Police said her Aadhaar card was used to open a Canara Bank account for illegal deals worth ₹6 crore.
The caller told her that this had led to a money laundering case against her. To make the story more convincing, he sent her a document stating that a person named “Naresh Goyal” had been arrested in the same case. She was warned that she and her family could be taken into custody at any time if she did not cooperate. She was also instructed not to share this information with anyone.
The woman was then told that she was under 24-hour surveillance and that the case would soon be taken over by the CBI. She was informed that a hearing would be conducted shortly.
Later, a man came on a video call wearing what looked like a judge’s attire introduced himself as “Judge Chandrachud”. She was told that he would decide whether she would get bail.
Before this so-called hearing, another person who identified himself as “SK Jaiswal” asked her to write a two to three-page note about her life so that her background and character could be checked. He assured her that if she was found innocent, she would be granted bail without any delay.
During the virtual hearing, the man posing as the judge questioned her about the money laundering case. When she said she had done nothing wrong, he told her that her bail was rejected and abruptly ended the call. This increased her fear that the police would arrest her at any moment.
She was then told by the callers that the only way to prove her innocence was to submit all her money for verification. She was instructed to transfer 90 to 95% of her bank balances and mutual fund holdings to secure accounts through RTGS. Believing that she was following genuine instructions from the police and a court, the woman shared details of all her bank accounts.
Between 18th August and early October, she transferred a total amount of ₹3.71 crore to different bank accounts as directed during repeated phone and video calls from people using the names “Vijay Paul”, “SK” and others. When the callers started asking for even more money, delayed returning the funds on various excuses, and continued to threaten her with arrest, she realised that she had been cheated.
She then approached the West Region Cyber Police, which registered an FIR for offences such as cheating, impersonation and use of forged documents. The police are now tracing the bank accounts that received the money, including several accounts that appear to be linked to Gujarat, as the investigation continues.