Rs. 41.50 lakh recovered and returned to cyber crime victims

The Tirunelveli City Cyber Crime Wing police have recovered ₹41.50 lakh and returned the money to two cyber crime victims.

Police said a stranger, who recently contacted retired banker Natarajan of Perumalpuram over the phone, introduced himself as ‘police officer’ and told him that he had been under ‘digital arrest’ in connection with alleged money laundering. He demanded ₹30 lakh to absolve him from the ‘case’. Panicked, Mr. Natarajan transferred ₹29.50 lakh to the account mentioned by the stranger.

As he realised that he had been defrauded, Mr. Natarajan filed a complaint with the Cyber Crime Wing of Tirunelveli City.

Similarly, senior citizen Rangarajan of Perumalpuram lost ₹15 lakh as he was also defrauded by a stranger in the guise of ‘digital arrest’.

On getting complaints from them, the Cyber Crime Wing police arrested three persons from Telengana – Thagaram Sai Siddharth, 26, of Khammam district in Telengana, his father Thagaram Srinivas and their associate Sai Kiran, 38 – and froze their accounts.

Subsequently, the police recovered ₹12 lakh to be handed over to Mr. Rangarajan and ₹29.50 lakh to Mr. Natarajan.