Bengaluru, May 24 (IANS) The Karnataka State Cyber Command on Sunday unearthed a massive “digital arrest” cyber fraud case in which a 74-year-old Bengaluru woman was allegedly cheated of Rs 24 crore by fraudsters posing as officials of central investigation agencies. The arrested accused were identified as N. Shivanam from Erode in Tamil Nadu, Akkach Mallik from Mumbai in Maharashtra, Palak Bhai Patel and Amit Narendra Patel from Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Om Prakash Rajut from New Delhi, and Gaurav Kumar from Bihar. An official statement
in this regard was issued by Punab Mohanty, IPS, Director General of Police, Cyber Command, Bengaluru. According to a press note issued by the Karnataka State Cyber Command, the victim, Lakshmi Ramamurthy, a senior citizen from Bengaluru, was trapped by cyber criminals impersonating officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The accused allegedly intimidated and manipulated her into transferring huge sums of money over a period of more than two months. Police said the victim transferred Rs 24 crore
from her ICICI Bank account through 26 transactions into 23 root accounts linked to 10 different banks across the country between February 10 and April 24, 2026. Officials said the fraudsters attempted to extract more money from the woman even after the massive transfers. On April 24, she was reportedly preparing to transfer another Rs 3 crore by availing a gold loan. However, alert officials of ICICI Bank informed the Cyber Command unit, following which the police team immediately intervened and prevented the transfer. The
timely intervention helped save Rs 3 crore from reaching the fraudsters. Following the complaint, the Cyber Command launched an investigation and traced the movement of funds parked in first-tier accounts. With the assistance of the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP), police froze several root accounts and recovered around Rs 4 crore. In addition, another Rs 1.46 crore was recovered through court orders, taking the total recovered amount to more than Rs 5.46 crore. During the investigation, police also seized six mobile phones allegedly used
in the crime from the arrested accused.
Bengaluru, digital arrest scam, Karnataka State Cyber Command, Lakshmi Ramamurthy, ICICI Bank, CBI, Enforcement Directorate, Rs 24 crore, NCRP, root accounts, arrested accused
Digital arrest scams are getting wild. How do people even fall for it though, like did she not think CBI would call her?
So they froze accounts and recovered some money, but she lost 24 crore first… that’s basically like the bank did nothing until the last second. Also why was she transferring so much in the first place, sounds like the app or phone hacked her.
I’m confused, it says they tried to scam more after she already sent 24 crore, but then it was stopped because ICICI alerted them. Like who watches these transfers, shouldn’t the bank catch it sooner? 23 root accounts across 10 banks sounds fake to me, maybe just one bank issue.
Man I feel bad for her but I still don’t get it. If someone is impersonating CBI/ED, couldn’t she just call the real agencies from the website? They said she was prepping to transfer 3 crore via gold loan… sounds like “gold” is the trigger word they used. Also root accounts?? that sounds like something out of a movie not real money math.