Retired Vasai Professor Duped of ₹1.35 Crore in Cyber Fraud Using Fake Police Case Threats

Palghar, Maharashtra — A 63-year-old retired professor from Vasai has been cheated out of ₹1.35 crore in a cyber fraud case where scammers posed as police officials and threatened him with arrest.

The victim, Santosh Achyut Shende, a resident of Vasai West, reported the incident to the police after realizing he had been tricked. According to the police, the fraud took place between May 19 and June 23, 2025.

Shende received video calls on WhatsApp from people who introduced themselves as Sandeep Rao, Niraj Kumar, and Vijay Khanna. They claimed that a bank account had been fraudulently opened in his name at Canara Bank using his Aadhaar details and that he was involved in a police case linked to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

The scammers then told Shende that an arrest warrant had been issued against him and warned that police would come to arrest him at his home if he didn’t report to the Colaba Police Station.

Scared by the threats, Shende transferred a total of ₹1,35,69,724 from his four bank accounts to seven different accounts given by the fraudsters.

Once he realized the entire situation was a scam, he approached the Vasai Police, who registered an FIR (Crime No. 188/2025). The case falls under several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023, including 319(2), 318(4), 3(5), and relevant sections of the IT Act such as 66(C) and 198(D).

So far, no arrests have been made, but police say they are investigating the matter and working to identify and track down the culprits.