Nagpur: A 72-year-old man from the Katol Road area was allegedly duped of ₹27.97 lakh by cyber fraudsters posing as Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) officials and threatening to arrest him and his family members in a fabricated money laundering case.

According to the complaint lodged with the cyber police, the victim, Udaychandra Krishnamurti Patnaik, received WhatsApp calls from unidentified persons using multiple mobile numbers. The callers allegedly claimed that they were ATS officials investigating a bank account opened in his name at ICICI Bank.

The fraudsters told Patnaik that the account had been used for money laundering and that the funds were linked to terrorist activities. They allegedly claimed that a criminal case had been registered against him and threatened to arrest him and his family members.

Under the pretext of an investigation, the callers subjected the senior citizen to prolonged questioning and allegedly kept him under pressure by threatening serious legal consequences. They used these threats to induce him to transfer a total of ₹27,97,799, the complaint stated.

After realising that he had been cheated, Patnaik approached the police. Cyber police registered a case against unidentified persons under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Information Technology Act.

Police are investigating the case to identify the fraudsters and trace the money transferred by the victim.