A woman from Naranpura, aged 27, lodged a police complaint stating that unknown individuals, posing as officers from central agencies, extorted Rs 5 lakh from her by threatening her with legal action under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. The cybercriminals also allegedly forced the woman to undress in front of a webcam during her digital arrest.
According to the FIR filed with Naranpura police, the victim, Hemali Pandya, who resides in Samarpan Tower on the 132 Feet Ring Road, received a call on Oct 13 from a man claiming to be a courier firm employee. He informed her that a parcel containing three laptops, two cell phones, 150 grams of mephedrone, and 1.5 kg of clothes was sent to Thailand using her name. The caller instructed Pandya to contact cybercrime immediately.
Soon after disconnecting the call to reach out to the cybercrime helpline, Pandya received a WhatsApp call from someone claiming to be an officer from Delhi Cyber Crime. The officer informed Pandya that her name cropped up during a probe into a narcotics case and asked her to join a video conference. She then received messages containing allegedly forged letters from Delhi Cyber Crime and the CBI naming her as a suspect in a narcotics smuggling and money laundering case.
A frightened Pandya joined the video call, where a man posing as a CBI officer, without showing his face, allegedly coerced her into disrobing to reveal all her birthmarks.
Despite her initial refusal, she complied after being threatened with imprisonment. She mentioned in the FIR that she was forced to undress in the presence of a woman officer.
Pandya stated that she was compelled to transfer all the money she had, about Rs 4.92 lakh, to accounts provided by the cyber fraudsters. When she confided in her neighbour about the incident, the neighbour called one of the accused, who admitted, “This woman was made a victim of cyber fraud, so please take care of her.” The fraudster ended the call, and all the numbers used by him were switched off.
Naranpura police booked the unknown accused persons under various sections of the BNS for producing forged documents as genuine, forgery, cheating, extortion, impersonating a public servant, and criminal conspiracy.