Retired Army Officer Duped of ₹41.45 Lakh in Digital Gold Scam; Two Arrested in Delhi

Two men allegedly involved in a cyber fraud with links to Chinese scammers have been arrested in southwest Delhi for cheating a retired Army officer out of ₹41.45 lakh, police said on Saturday.

The accused, Indra Kumar Sahani and Rahim Khan, ran a sophisticated fraud operation that targeted people online with promises of high returns through digital gold trading.

According to Surendra Choudhary, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southwest), Rahim Khan was the main operator and was in touch with Chinese nationals through a messaging app. He worked from hotel rooms in Ahmedabad, where he met people whose bank accounts he used to transfer money abroad.

Khan reportedly installed special apps on phones linked to SIM cards registered with these bank accounts. This gave foreign scammers remote access to the accounts, allowing them to move money out of India without detection.

The scam came to light when a retired colonel living in Vasant Kunj filed a complaint. He said he was contacted through social media and offered high profits from gold trading in US dollars. After seeing fake profits on a fake website, he kept investing more money. In total, he put in ₹41.45 lakh, believing his investment had grown to ₹1 crore.

But when he tried to withdraw his supposed earnings, he was asked to pay another ₹31.5 lakh as "taxes." That’s when he realized it was a scam and approached the police.

Police traced the suspects to Ahmedabad. They arrested Sahani from a hotel and found three mobile phones with incriminating evidence. Later, based on his statements, Khan was also arrested and two more phones were seized.

Police said Sahani initially opened one personal bank account, but later opened nine more current accounts and sold them to the scam network for a commission.

Officials believe this case has exposed a larger cyber fraud network with international links. Investigations are ongoing to find more victims and people involved in the scam.