LUDHIANA: Scammers posing as counterterrorism squad officers confined a 73-year-old man to his room on a six-day video call and took his life savings for bogus hawala verification.They conned the retired bank employee out of ₹99 lakh after subjecting him to fake court hearings in this “digital arrest” scam. Ludhiana’s cybercrime police registered an FIR on Nov 4 against unidentified suspects under Section 318(4) (cheating) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.The scam began on Oct 26 when Gurmukh Singh of New Prem Nagar in Civil Lines received a WhatsApp call from a man identifying himself as Vikram from the Pune Anti-Terrorism Squad. The caller claimed investigators had arrested suspects conducting hawala transactions through a private bank account in Lucknow opened with his identity documents.Threatening imminent arrest, the caller eventually offered to help him clear his name, suggesting his credentials may have been misused. To cooperate, he was ordered to remain inside his room under continuous video surveillance, barred from leaving the house, and instructed not to tell anyone, including his family.The callers told Gurmukh Singh his savings were linked to the hawala probe and had to be frozen for verification. “They gave me bank account numbers for money transfer,” he told police. “They said that they’ll send back the money once the verification of its source was complete.”He transferred ₹89 lakh on Oct 29 and ₹1 lakh on Oct 31 to the given accounts.
