A 62-year-old farmer from Dakshina Kannada in Karnataka lost ₹1.31 crore in a “digital arrest” scam in which fraudsters posing as Mumbai police and Anti-Terrorism Squad officers accused him of funding the Pahalgam terror attack, officials told The Indian Express on 12 October 2026.
Quick Facts
| Victim | A 62-year-old farmer from Dakshina Kannada |
| Amount lost | ₹1.31 crore |
| Duration | Nearly one and a half months under “digital arrest” |
| First call | About 3 pm on 27 August |
| How it ended | His daughter in Bengaluru warned him about such scams on 8 October |
How the Fraud Worked
According to the FIR, the farmer got a call from an unknown number on 27 August. The caller said he was from the Mumbai police, that money laundering linked to the accused in the Pahalgam attack had been traced to the farmer’s name, and that the Bombay High Court had issued an arrest warrant. A WhatsApp video call followed from a man claiming to be a Mumbai ATS investigating officer, who called the matter “top secret”.
The farmer was told to sit in a closed room, tell no one, and appear before the ATS in Mumbai within 48 hours. He was kept on video for about an hour and a half and made to message every hour: “Case Code RS 7457 I am safe and secure”. On 29 August a man in police uniform allegedly sent WhatsApp documents described as Bombay High Court orders, and a purported IPS officer then took over.
How the Money Was Taken
- **31 August:** told to list and close his and his mother’s fixed deposits; later told to move money to an “RBI account” for “verification”, and to say, if the bank asked, that it was for his daughter’s house purchase in Bengaluru. He sent ₹35 lakh by RTGS from a Canara Bank branch to an account in Hyderabad
- **Gold:** forced to pledge gold at an Axis Bank branch in Puttur for a ₹22.5 lakh loan
- **Building:** told to mortgage his commercial building, and obtained a ₹74 lakh loan from Karnataka Bank, which he transferred the next day
At each stage the callers sent him a transfer receipt or screenshot on WhatsApp.
How He Realised
On 8 October his daughter told him about a news report of an elderly person who lost ₹2 crore to a “digital arrest”. It was then that he realised he had been cheated.
What Is Not Known
The report did not say whether any arrests have been made or whether any of the money has been traced.
Featured image: Farmland in Dakshina Kannada district during the monsoon (file photo). Photo by Rajaramraok at English Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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