I am a 77-year-old woman, living peacefully with my husband in Greater Kailash, South Delhi, until my life was turned into a nightmare by a ruthless cyber-fraud gang. In December 2025, I received a phone call that shattered my sense of safety. The caller coldly claimed that a SIM card issued in my name was being used in a money-laundering case. Before I could even process the shock, I was dragged into a terrifying web of lies, threats, and digital imprisonment.
The scammers forced me onto continuous video calls, impersonating law-enforcement agencies like the CBI and police. They showed me forged arrest warrants, staged fake court proceedings, and threatened me with immediate arrest if I dared to disconnect or speak to anyone. My husband and I were kept under round-the-clock digital surveillance, mentally cornered and emotionally terrorized. We were told that our only escape was to “cooperate” fully. Under extreme fear, we were coerced into transferring our life savings into so-called “RBI-mandated verification accounts”, with false promises that the money would be returned once our “names were cleared.”
In complete panic and helplessness, we transferred ₹14.84 crore—our fixed deposits, investments, and savings—across eight transactions. Every transfer felt like a gun to my head. Only later did I realize I had been “digitally arrested” by criminals operating across states and borders. When I finally found the strength to report the crime, the Delhi Police Special Cell registered an e-FIR on January 10 and uncovered a massive cyber-fraud racket linked to operators in Cambodia and Nepal.
The police arrested eight accused who played active roles in destroying my life. Among them were Divyang Patel and Krutik Shitole from Gujarat—educated men who used their financial knowledge to run mule accounts and siphon money. Divyang Patel, shockingly, ran an NGO named Floresta Foundation while allegedly laundering crime money. Krutik Shitole, with an IT diploma from New Zealand, helped fuel this digital terror. From Odisha, Mahavir Sharma alias Neel joined the fraud chain, while Gujarat-based Ankit Mishra alias Robin, a former SBI Cap Securities employee, also betrayed public trust.
From Uttar Pradesh, the arrests included Arun Kumar Tiwari, who ran an NGO while working outside the Income Tax Office, and Pradyuman Tiwari alias S P Tiwari, a priest who performed poojas at Varanasi ghats—using religion as a mask while facilitating crime. Also arrested were Bhupender Kumar Mishra, an MBA graduate, and Aadesh Kumar Singh, a former tutor—both accused of operating and arranging mule bank accounts. These individuals acted as enablers, knowingly helping an international syndicate loot elderly victims like me.
The investigation revealed that this gang carefully layered stolen funds through multiple bank accounts to erase the money trail. The police seized seven mobile phones and chequebooks, exposing just a fraction of the operation. While arrests have been made, my trust, peace, and lifetime savings have been violently stolen. I speak not just as a victim, but as a warning—this was not a simple fraud; it was psychological warfare, executed with precision, cruelty, and zero remorse.