The victim, a 75‑year‑old woman undergoing cancer treatment, lived alone in a modest apartment in Vasant Kunj, making her a convenient target for scammers preying on the elderly.
On April 6, an unknown caller claimed to be a CBI officer and threatened that the woman’s number was linked to a money‑laundering case. The fraudsters, in police uniforms, coerced her into transferring Rs 3 lakh to a Bank of Maharashtra account and then into handing over 83.5 grams of gold to a loan‑broker for a Rs 4,95,250 loan, all under the pretense of saving her assets.
Her daughter, Radhika Ralhan, living in the Netherlands, received a shocking video call on April 27 that showed her mother with an unfamiliar man and a terrified expression. Radhika urged her mother to contact the police, then flew to Delhi on April 29 and filed a formal complaint, exposing the fraud’s physical dimension.
The scammers returned on April 13 and 15, seizing the woman’s property documents and forcing her to sign a sale agreement for her home, worth over Rs 2 crore. They later deposited checks of Rs 23 lakh and Rs 10 lakh into her account, only to withdraw Rs 21 lakh and Rs 3 lakh the following day, transferring the money to an account named Savitri Bai Phule Educational Welfare Society.
Delhi police have opened a case and are collecting evidence, tracing the individuals who posed as government officials. The incident underscores the vulnerability of elderly citizens to sophisticated cyber‑fraud schemes that combine digital manipulation with physical intimidation.