Dr Preeti Sudhakar, the wife of Chikkaballapur MP and former Karnataka minister Dr K Sudhakar, was recently defrauded of Rs 14 lakh in a case of ‘digital arrest’ fraud. However, since a complaint was filed within the ‘golden hour’, the amount was swiftly recovered by the Cyber Crime unit of the state police.
Though the incident took place on August 26, it came to light recently after the Bengaluru police revealed the matter. The investigators are, however, yet to trace the fraudster.
According to police sources, Preeti had transferred the amount through a Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) transaction from her HDFC Bank account to a Yes Bank account. “Since the complaint was filed within a few hours, we succeeded in getting the details of the transaction and freezing the amount transferred to the fraudster’s account,” said an official attached to the Cyber Crime, Economic Offences and Narcotics (CEN) station, under the Bengaluru West Division.
As per the police, Preeti received a WhatsApp call from an unknown number, with the individual at the other end of the line claiming to be an officer of the Mumbai Cyber Crime Department.
The fraudster duped Preeti, saying that her personal documents were misused by one Sadbhat Khan to create a credit card in her name and use it for illegal transactions and trafficking activities in countries such as Vietnam and Cambodia, the police said. To bolster his claim, she was sent a photo of “Khan’s arrest” before the fraudster initiated a video call and threatened to freeze her bank accounts.
After convincing the victim of the “illegal” activities linked to her accounts, the man then asked Preeti to transfer Rs 14 lakh to verify her account. She transferred the amount to an account specified by the fraudster, officers added.
Soon, on realising that she was duped, the victim approached the police. A case was registered at the CEN police station. Since she had approached the authorities during the “golden hour”, the investigators succeeded in freezing the amount transferred fraudulently, officers said.
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The police then moved the city court, which ordered the transferred money to be returned to Preeti’s account.