A 75-year-old woman in south Delhi was not only subjected to a “digital arrest”, but the scamsters went a step further: they showed up at her doorstep and forced her to pawn her gold jewellery and sell her only home. Vibha (name changed), who lives alone in Vasant Kunj, received a call on her landline on April 6 claiming she was linked to a money laundering case. What followed was a month-long ordeal involving the transfer of money, gold and property, along with severe mental and physical trauma.
The callers forced her to share her WhatsApp number. “On a video call, uniformed men claiming to be from the Central Bureau of Investigation, sitting inside a police station, told me I had to be under arrest, or my children would be brought back to India within minutes,” Vibha said.
Vibha, a breast cancer patient, is only in touch with her daughter Radhika, who lives in the Netherlands. “They said the Enforcement Directorate (ED) would arrest my children and they would not get bail. This scared me so much that I agreed to do whatever they asked,” she said.
The scamsters then told her that to get a “clearance from ED”, she had to deposit all her money, jewellery and property with them.
From April 6 to 27, she remained under constant video surveillance. During this period, she was forced to transfer ₹3 lakh, take a gold loan of about ₹5 lakh by pawning jewellery weighing 83.5 grams (worth about ₹12 lakh), and sell her Vasant Kunj house, worth over ₹2 crore. The money received from the loan and the property sale was immediately siphoned off to the scamsters’ accounts.
“On April 7, while returning from Muthoot FinCorp Limited after pawning my jewellery, I was in severe distress. I fell on the steps of my house and injured my knee. I started crying and told them, ‘You may kill me if you have to, but I cannot do this anymore’,” she said.
Beyond digital arrest
The scamsters then told her that a property dealer would visit her house to help complete the sale. On April 13, a man identifying himself as Sushant Kumar arrived and took her documents. Two days later, he returned with two others — one posing as the buyer and another as a witness. The property was sold for ₹2.40 crore, and the buyer, Anil Kapoor, gave her a cheque of ₹24 lakh as an initial payment.
The video surveillance continued throughout.
“Sushant Kumar, who was also in touch with the scamsters over the phone, took the cheque to the bank himself and deposited it into an account linked to an educational society,” Vibha said, adding that he also showed her a receipt purportedly from the ED acknowledging the amount.
Vibha kept waiting for the promised “clearance”, but when she did not hear back until April 27, she asked Sushant to accompany her to the police station to file a complaint. “Even there, the scamsters called and spoke to the SHO,” she said, adding that Sushant did not disclose his name in the complaint.
While the video surveillance ended after this, Sushant continued to call and harass her, demanding ₹48 lakh as ransom to return the property papers.
Mental and physical trauma
“This is not just cybercrime but also a crime against a woman. An elderly woman was surveilled 24/7 for 21 days. Men came to her house and forced her to sell her property. She has lost all her life’s savings,” said Radhika.
The investigation officer in the case said the police are examining electronic records. “The money was siphoned off through multiple transactions across three banks. Notice has been sent to the property dealer, who will be examined soon,” he said.
“Digital arrest cases are evolving, with scamsters involving local property dealers, finance and bank employees who approach victims, usually elderly women, and pressure them to settle, often demanding double the amount,” said Kush Sharma, an advocate who has filed an application before a Delhi court seeking a court-monitored investigation on behalf of Vibha. The matter will be heard next month.
Published – June 11, 2026 01:27 am IST
