A 68 year old woman from Mumbai’s Andheri West has alleged that she was duped of ₹3.71 crore in a digital arrest scam in which fraudsters staged a fake virtual court presided over by a man posing as a judge named “Chandrachud”.
The West Region Cyber Police Station has registered an FIR and is probing multiple unknown persons who allegedly impersonated Mumbai Police personnel, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials and a magistrate to induce her to part with her life savings under the guise of a money laundering investigation.
According to the first information report (FIR), complainant Dhanalakshmi Satyanarayana Rao Naidu first received a call on August 18, 2025 from a person identifying himself as “Vijay Paul”, who claimed he would connect her to Colaba Police Station.
She then received WhatsApp video calls from two numbers, where a man introduced himself as “SK” from Colaba Police Station and alleged that her Aadhaar had been used to open a Canara Bank account through which illegal transactions of ₹6 crore were routed, attracting a money laundering case against her.
The caller allegedly sent her a document claiming that one “Naresh Goyal” had been arrested in the same case and warned that she and her family could be arrested at any time if she did not cooperate.
The FIR states that she was told not to disclose the case to anyone. She was then placed under purported 24 hour surveillance and informed that the CBI would take over the probe, with her “hearing” to be conducted shortly.
The complaint records that a man later came on video call wearing what appeared to be judicial attire and was introduced to her as “Judge Chandrachud”, who would decide her bail.
Before this, an individual identifying himself as “SK Jaiswal” allegedly asked her to write a two to three page account of her life so that her character could be assessed. The man assured her that if found innocent, she would get bail quickly.
During the purported virtual hearing, the man posing as “Judge Chandrachud” allegedly questioned her about the supposed money laundering case and. When she denied wrongdoing, he told her that her bail stood rejected and left the screen, further heightening her fear of imminent arrest.
The accused then allegedly told her that to prove her innocence, she would have to submit all her wealth for verification and that 90–95% of her mutual fund holdings and bank balances had to be transferred to “secure” accounts via RTGS.
Believing that she was complying with directions from police and a court, the woman allegedly disclosed details of all her bank accounts and, between August 18 and early October, transferred a total of ₹3.71 crore to various accounts as instructed over calls from the numbers used by “Vijay Paul” and “SK”, among others.
When the callers began demanding additional sums, delayed returning the money on one pretext or another and continued to threaten arrest, she realised she had been cheated and approached the West Region Cyber Police.
The cyber police have booked unknown accused for offences including cheating, impersonation and use of forged documents. They are examining the mule accounts that received her funds, including those traced to Gujarat.
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