Indore (Madhya Pradesh):  City cops rescued two people including a software engineer from ‘Digital Arrest’ in two different localities, police said on Thursday.    

In the first incident, additional DCP (crime) Rajesh Dandotiya rescued a software engineer from a three-day ‘digital arrest’ on Thursday. The police officer reached the victim’s home and confronted the accused who was posing as a staff of a courier service company and interacting with the victim through a video call. He warned the accused of tracking him down and putting him behind bars in no time.  

The video of the confrontation is being widely circulated on social media. The cop introduced himself as additional DCP Dandotiya. "Main tujhe, Dilli, Hyderabad... jaha par bhi tu hai, wahan se utha lunga. Tu mera chehra yaad rakh lena." (Remember this face; I will arrest you from wherever you are hiding). However, by then the victim had already lost Rs 1.35 lakh. Dandotiya had reached the victim's home after his friend filed a complaint.  

Trapped him on pretext of 'objectionable parcel'

Mohit, a software engineer with TCS, received an automated call on Monday claiming to be from DHL Courier Services. The caller stated that a parcel containing objectionable items had been flagged and told Mohit to press ‘1’ for more details. On pressing the number, Mohit was connected to a fraudster posing as a courier service representative. The scammer said that Mohit's parcel to Thailand had been stopped at the airport as it was illegal.

The call was transferred to another individual pretending to be from the Delhi Cyber Police. The fraudster threatened that multiple bank accounts linked to Mohit’s Aadhaar card were involved in money laundering and other illegal activities. He was also threatened to be arrested if he didn't cooperate. Mohit was also asked for details of his bank accounts.

The fraudster then instructed him to transfer all his money to an ‘RBI account’ for verification. He transferred Rs 1 lakh to the fraudster’s account. Later, he was asked to pay Rs 35k for bail to avoid arrest.  Later, Mohit’s friend called the police and additional DCP Crime Branch Rajesh Dandotiya, reached the residence and witnessed the ongoing crime. As soon as he showed up on the video call, the fraudsters disconnected the call.  

Anyone with information about the suspect can contact the Indore Police Cyber Helpline at 7049124445.

Man reaches hotel after receiving scammer’s call

Another incident took place in the Vijay Nagar area on Wednesday. Vijay Nagar police station in-charge Chandrakant Patel said family members of Dharmendra Sharma reached police station and lodged a complaint that Dharmendra was not receiving their phone calls for hours.

After that, the police managed to track the mobile number and found it was being used in Hotel Friends in the Vijay Nagar area. Later, Patel and other policemen along with the family members of Sharma reached room number 109. Seeing the policemen and the family members, Sharma was shocked and immediately cut the phone call and hid his phone in his clothes.

He was scared so he first tried to hide the incident but when the police assured him that there is nothing like ‘digital arrest’, he revealed that he had received a phone call from Dubai around 1.30 pm. The caller had informed that his name had come in some legal case in Mumbai. Later, the caller told him to transfer his call to a person, who posed as an officer of Mumbai police.

After that, Sharma was scared and didn’t reveal the matter to anyone and reached the hotel. He was held under ‘digital arrest’ for four hours. Police claimed that quick action by the officials saved the man from financial loss.