Shocking Crime: Retired Wing Commander Held Hostage for 36 Days, Looted of ₹3.22 Crore

 Noida (The Uttam Hindu): A shocking case has come to light in the world of cyber crime, where criminals kept an entire family prisoner in their own house for 36 days and defrauded them of Rs 3.22 crore. The surprising thing is that the victim of this 'digital arrest' is not a common citizen, but a retired wing commander of the Indian Air Force, who himself is trained to deal with crime. This incident is from Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

A phone call and the fear of arrest

This horrifying experience of retired Wing Commander Subir Mitra and his family living in Sector 25, Noida, started with a phone call on July 18. The caller, claiming to be an employee of a telecom company, claimed that illegal activities were being carried out by misusing Subir's Aadhaar card. The fraud told him that obscene pictures and illegal advertisements were being sent to people from the SIM card taken in his name. To make the matter look real, he was also connected to fake Mumbai Crime Branch officials on a video call.

Money laundering racket and fake warrants

The swindlers told the Wing Commander that a bank account opened in his name was used in a high-profile money laundering case involving Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal. They also showed Subir a fake arrest warrant and pressured him to come to Mumbai immediately, leaving the entire family terrified.

This is how 'digital arrest' was done

Seeing the family scared, the thugs played their next trick. They said that if they cooperate in the investigation, they can avoid arrest, but the condition is that they will have to stay in the house with their entire family under constant surveillance and no one should know about this. In this way, Subir, his wife Keya and daughter Malobika got trapped in the psychological trap woven by the thugs and became prisoners in their own house for 36 days. During this time, they were allowed to go out only twice for important work.

Drama and fraud of online hearing

The fraudsters also staged an online hearing in which Subir was presented before a fake magistrate. Here he was told that if he wanted a 'clean chit' in the case, he would have to get all his deposits verified. Under this pretext, they started demanding money from him. Under fear and pressure, Subir transferred his entire life savings, a total of Rs 3.22 crore, in six installments between July 22 and August 22 to the accounts mentioned by the criminals.

When the fraudsters' demand for money kept increasing, the family became suspicious. When they demanded their money back, the criminals broke off contact with them. Only then did the family realise that they had become victims of an organised cyber fraud. After this, their daughter immediately lodged a complaint on the NCRP portal and at the cyber crime police station. The police is currently investigating the matter.