The worrying rise of fraudsters on the prowl online
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Panda, the 1971 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre who, one fine day while in service, declared himself to be Radha, the divine consort of Lord Krishna? He would arrive in office dressed as a woman; he began signing official paperwork as “Doosri Radha" (Radha, the second). When his kin, close associates, and subordinates began making fun of him, he sought voluntary retirement from the police service. Panda now lives in Prayagraj.
He was all but forgotten until a few weeks ago but was back in the news after he lodged a complaint alleging criminal intimidation and cheating with the Dhoomanganj police. Panda claimed some people had been trying to extort ₹8 lakh from him by threatening to frame him in a terror funding case. He told the police that he had built a ₹381-crore fortune through online trading.
When he tried to redeem that sum into his bank account, a person—who Panda identified as Arav Sharma from Cyprus—called him and asked him to deposit ₹8 lakh towards tax, conversion, liquidity, transaction fee, and other charges incurred on account of the trading. Panda got suspicious and tried to investigate Sharma’s veracity. Meanwhile, Sharma called up Panda, verbally abused him, and threatened to frame the former police officer in a terror funding case if he didn’t deposit the money to an account he specified.
The police are investigating the matter, but no arrest has been made in the matter. Let’s look at another such case. Vashishth, a retired bank manager who lives in Noida, received a call in the afternoon on 21 October.
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