ED freezes Rs 2.12 crore in cyber fraud targeting senior citizen
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Guwahati Zonal Office-I has provisionally attached bank balances of about Rs 2.12 crore spread across 43 accounts in a digital-arrest cyber fraud that targeted a senior citizen of the city.
The attachment order, issued on October 7, 2026 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, covers accounts held with Axis Bank, Bank of India, Federal Bank, IndusInd Bank, Punjab National Bank and State Bank of India. Investigators say the balances represent proceeds of crime that remain available and have been frozen to stop their further dissipation.
The action follows an FIR registered by the Cyber Police Station of the Criminal Investigation Department, Assam, under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and the Information Technology Act, 2000, against unknown fraudsters.
Between September and December 2025, callers impersonating officials of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the Mumbai Crime Branch, and the Central Bureau of Investigation contacted the victim. They told him that a bank account opened with his Aadhaar number had been used for money laundering and that he had been placed under a so-called digital arrest. Through WhatsApp video calls, they showed him fabricated court proceedings and a fake digital-arrest warrant. They ordered him to mark his presence every two hours and threatened detention under the National Security Act if he informed anyone.
Under the further pretext of an inspection of his family’s funds by the Reserve Bank of India, and later a fake bail bond, the victim was coerced into transferring roughly Rs 2.13 crore in 19 transactions to accounts dictated by the callers. To raise the money, he liquidated fixed deposits, mutual funds and shares, and took loans against his pension account and insurance policies.
The ED’s money-trail analysis shows the extorted sum was first credited to mule accounts and then split and routed through successive layers of accounts held by individuals, firms and companies across the country. Portions were withdrawn in cash, converted into digital currency, pushed through payment gateways or moved onward in a deliberate pattern designed to conceal the origin. The volume and nature of the transactions were wholly inconsistent with the account holders’ declared profiles, pointing to an organised mule-account network operated by the syndicate.
By tracing the flow, the agency identified 43 accounts through which the proceeds passed and in which balances remained. Those balances, aggregating about Rs 2.12 crore, have now been provisionally attached under Section 5(1) of the PMLA. Officials said the attachment is intended to preserve the funds until the investigation is complete and any subsequent confiscation proceedings.
The case illustrates the continuing use of digital-arrest tactics, in which victims are isolated through continuous video calls, shown forged official documents, and pressured into liquidating savings under threat of arrest. Further investigation into the wider network of accounts and the people controlling them is underway.
