The CBI has filed a chargesheet against a man for his alleged involvement in a sophisticated digital arrest scam that defrauded a retired banker of Rs 23 crore through impersonation and intimidation.
Key Points
- The CBI has filed a chargesheet against Sagnik Roy for allegedly defrauding a retired banker of Rs 23 crore in a digital arrest scam.
- The scam involved impersonating law enforcement and judicial authorities to intimidate the victim via video calls.
- The victim was confined to his home under 'digital arrest' and coerced into transferring funds to accounts linked to the accused.
- The CBI investigation revealed the same bank account was used in other cyber fraud cases across India.
- The victim was tricked into believing his Aadhaar card was linked to terror funding and was threatened into silence.
The CBI has filed a chargesheet against a man for allegedly duping a retired banker from Delhi's upscale Gulmohar Park of Rs 23 crore in a digital arrest scam, officials said on Friday.
After taking over the investigation on March 15 on the orders of the Supreme Court, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) moved quickly to investigate and filed a chargesheet against Siliguri-based Sagnik Roy and his company, Securing World Social and Economic Development Council, which had allegedly received the retired banker's stolen funds, the officials said.
Roy was arrested by Delhi Police, which was earlier probing the case.
Details of the Digital Arrest Scam
"During the course of the investigation, it was revealed that the accused and his company's current bank account were used to receive the fraud amount. These funds were linked to a "Digital Arrest" scam targeting a senior citizen in Delhi," a CBI spokesperson said in a statement.
The senior citizen had been defrauded of close to Rs 23 crore through intimidation, fake notices and impersonation of law enforcement agencies and judicial authorities over video calls, the statement said.
The CBI also found that the same bank account was used in at least two other cyber fraud cases registered at separate locations in India.
"This account was used to receive proceeds of crime, which were subsequently siphoned off through a network of mule accounts," the agency said.
Victim's Ordeal and Modus Operandi
For more than a month, the 78-year-old victim was kept confined to his house under digital arrest last year and was let out only to make runs to his banks to shore up money and give it to the frauds who posed as CBI and Enforcement Directorate officers, it said.
By the time his ordeal ended, the victim had lost Rs 23 crore.
On August 1, 2025, the man received a call from a person claiming to be from a mobile connection company. The caller told him that his Aadhaar card had been used in Mumbai to issue a connection allegedly linked to terror funding cases.
The call was then diverted to people posing as Mumbai Police officers, who insisted on speaking over WhatsApp.
"The moment I was connected with (people posing as) police, they started pressuring me by saying that my Aadhaar had been used for terror funding, terror activities and many other serious offences," the victim had told PTI after the incident last year.
He said he was warned against revealing the matter to anyone, even his family members and if he did, they would be counted as co-accused and put behind bars.
The victim said the scammers sent him forged Reserve Bank of India certificates after each transfer. He said he was told the money would be returned and that a nodal officer from the RBI would contact him.
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