An 80-year-old doctor from Kasaragod, Kerala, allegedly lost Rs 1.19 crore after cybercriminals posing as Mumbai Crime Branch officers convinced him that he was involved in a money laundering case.
The Kasaragod Cyber Police have arrested a man in connection with the case. The accused, Shamsad Choorakuth, was taken into custody at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport after he arrived from the UAE on September 17.
According to police, the fraud took place between November 24 and December 17, 2025. The doctor, a resident of Nileswaram, was contacted through phone calls and WhatsApp video calls.
The callers allegedly told him that his name had appeared in a money laundering investigation. They then claimed that he had been placed under “digital arrest” and could be arrested if he did not follow their instructions.
The fraudsters allegedly told the doctor that the money in his bank accounts had to be checked as part of the investigation. Believing their claims, he transferred a total of Rs 1,19,35,000 to bank accounts provided by the suspects.
Police said the doctor made the transfers through different bank accounts between December 15 and 17.
The money was then moved through several accounts, making it difficult to trace. Police found that around Rs 46.25 lakh transferred by the doctor to an account in Dimapur was later moved to an account linked to Shamsad in Manjeri.
Police said Rs 9.6 lakh reached Shamsad’s account. He allegedly withdrew about Rs 9 lakh through a cheque.
Investigators believe Shamsad was a second-layer beneficiary in the alleged fraud. Police said there is no evidence so far that he was one of the people who directly threatened the doctor during the video calls.
The investigation also revealed that the stolen money had moved through several accounts. Police said the funds were distributed across around 49 second-layer accounts.
The doctor reported the matter to the cyber police on December 20, three days after the final transfer. His bank manager had also noticed the unusually large transactions and alerted his family.
Police managed to block around Rs 3 lakh of the transferred amount, while efforts are continuing to trace the remaining money.
The investigation led police to issue a Lookout Circular against Shamsad after they found that he was working in the UAE. When immigration officials detained him at Hyderabad airport on September 17, a Kasaragod Cyber Police team travelled there and took him into custody.
He was later produced before the Kasaragod Chief Judicial Magistrate Court and sent to judicial custody for 14 days.
The case remains under investigation, with police working to identify other people allegedly involved in the fraud and trace the money transferred through the different bank accounts.
