Copyright thehindu
The cybercrime police in Coimbatore city arrested three men from Kerala in a case where a retired government employee was duped of ₹29.88 lakh from his savings by unknown persons who kept him under ‘digital arrest’. The arrested have been identified as A. Nabeel, 30, and C. Haris, 34, of Morayur, and Muhammed Ramees, 28, of Pulpatta in Malappuram district, Kerala. The police said the complainant, who retired as a chief engineer from a government department, received a telephone call on April 18, 2025 from an unknown person claiming to be an officer investigating a money laundering case. The complainant was told that his Aadhaar number was linked to fraudulent transactions. Threatening the complainant with ‘digital arrest’, the imposter asked him to transfer the money from his bank account on the pretext of a verification process. The complainant transferred ₹29,88,000 to a bank account given by the imposter. He approached the cybercrime police with a complaint three days later, after realising that it was a scam. The police registered a case and examined the transaction trail in the case. They found that ₹6 lakh was credited from a bank account involved in the scam to a bank account of one of the three men from Malappuram recently. The trio withdrew the money from the bank. A police team from Coimbatore went to Malappuram and arrested them on Saturday (October 25, 2025). They were remanded in judicial custody late on Saturday. Cybercrime inspector Alaguraj said the three men are suspected to have been involved in the withdrawal of the defrauded money. The police are on the lookout for other accused.
