Fraudsters pose as ED personnel, dupe retired Army officer, wife of Rs 3.4 crore; inquiry on

The retired Colonel, Dalip Singh, 82, and his wife Ranvinder Kaur, 74, residents of Sector 2A, Chandigarh, have lost Rs 3.4 crore to the fraudsters who posed as personnel of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Colonel Dalip Singh, a veteran, expressed his anguish, stating, “As a youth, I dedicated my life to the service of the nation. Now, in my twilight years, I have lost everything to fraudsters. It is a cruel irony, and my only hope now rests with the Cyber Cell of Chandigarh Police.”

Colonel Dalip Singh said that his trauma must serve as a warning to other veterans and senior citizens. “I also appeal to Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh to intervene and help recover our lost savings, which were essential to our livelihood,” he said.

On March 18, 2025, Colonel Dalip Singh had received a WhatsApp call from an unknown number. The caller accused him of being involved in a money laundering case linked to an account at Canara Bank, Mumbai. The fraudsters alleged that Naresh Goyal, the jailed owner of Jet Airways, had implicated Colonel Singh, claiming he had sold the account for Rs 5 lakh and received Rs 20 lakh in commission for laundering Rs 2 crore.

To make their scheme appear legitimate, the fraudsters showed Colonel his ATM card over a video call and claimed they were investigating a Rs 5,000-crore scam. They sent photos of 24 alleged victims, stating that one had committed suicide and falsely claimed that a whistleblower had been murdered along with their entire family by Naresh Goyal.

The fraudsters coerced Col and his wife into house arrest, instructing them to keep their phones on at all times and forbidding them from contacting anyone. The digital arrest of the couple continued for 10 days, from March 18 to March 27. The fraudsters even threatened the couple with jail time and asset seizure if they did not cooperate, and sent fabricated Supreme Court letters via WhatsApp to reinforce the deception, and demanded full disclosure of their financial assets under the guise of checking for black money.

The fraudsters forced the couple to deposit money in different accounts over the period of March 18 to 27. The total amount transferred to accounts provided by the fraudsters amounts to a staggering Rs 3.4 crore.

A police official probing the case said that a mail has been written to the WhatsApp and other companies to obtain the IP address of the caller, so that the accused can be traced and arrested.

Venkatesh, DSP of Cyber Cell, said people should understand that there is nothing like digital arrest. The investigation in the present case is on.

“Our demand is that all our hard-earned savings which we had put in fixed deposits so that we could use the funds in our old age should be retrieved and remitted back to us by the authorities,” said Colonel Dalip Singh.