Thane man duped of Rs 2.5 lakh by fraudster posing as ATS officer, probe underway

A social worker from Ulhasnagar in Maharashtrarsquos Thane district was allegedly cheated of Rs 25 lakh by a fraudster posing as an AntiTerrorism Squad ATS officer who threatened him with arrest over alleged terror links police said on MondayThe accused allegedly contacted the victim through a WhatsApp call accused him of being a Pakistani informant and claimed that suspicious financial transactions worth Rs 3 crore had been detected in his bank accountThe police have registered a case against three persons under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita BNS and the Information Technology Act No arrests have been made so far and an investigation is underwayCaller impersonates ATS officerThe complainant Murlidhar Harpaldas Makhija is a resident of Ulhasnagar and works as a social workerAccording to his complaint Makhija received a WhatsApp call from an unknown number in March The caller allegedly identified himself as Pramod Mishra an officer with the ATS in Pune a police official saidThe caller reportedly used the threat of criminal proceedings to intimidate the victim and make him believe that he was under investigation by law enforcement agenciesVictim threatened with arrest over terror linksThe fraudster allegedly accused Makhija of being a Pakistani informant with links to terrorism He also claimed that suspicious transactions worth Rs 3 crore had been found in the victimrsquos bank accountThe caller further told Makhija that an arrest warrant had been issued against him by a court in Lucknow the police official saidThe victim was allegedly subjected to repeated harassment through video calls and was pressured to travel to the Uttar Pradesh capitalThe threats and repeated calls reportedly left Makhija fearing that he would be arrestedRs 25 lakh transferred through RTGSFearing arrest Makhija allegedly withdrew money from a fixed deposit held in his bank account and transferred Rs 25 lakh through the Real Time Gross Settlement RTGS systemThe money was sent to a bank account belonging to a person identified as Manish Shukla following the instructions of the caller the official saidThe victim allegedly made the payment under pressure after being threatened with legal action and told that he was linked to suspicious financial transactionsThe caller reportedly continued to intimidate Makhija through video calls making him believe that the alleged investigation and arrest warrant were genuineCase registered against three personsBased on Makhijarsquos complaint the police registered a case on Sunday against three persons under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology ActThe case relates to the alleged impersonation of a law enforcement officer threats of arrest and the transfer of money to a bank account specified by the callerThe police have not made any arrests so far Investigators are examining the complaint and the circumstances surrounding the alleged fraudThe investigation is underway officials saidWith inputs from PTI