A bishop from Kerala was allegedly cheated of Rs 15 lakh on August 2 by cyber fraudsters who posed as CBI officers. The Keezhvaipur police have filed a FIR against the alleged fraudsters on the basis of a complaint lodged for this incident.
The bishop. Geevarghese Mar Coorilos, who has earlier been a metropolitan of the Niranam diocese of the Malankara Jacobite Syriac Orthodox Church, said he had received a call, in which the caller-ID showed ‘Mumbai Cyber’.
On picking up the call, a man, who identified himself as a cyber police official told him that his account was linked to a money laundering case.
“The caller said my bank account was likely being misused by the accused in the money laundering case and that the case was being handled by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)”, the Bishop told Hindustan Times after registering a complaint with the police.
The bishop, further shared that he also got a video call after an hour where he saw some officers who were seated inside an office with a CBI emblem.
He was also reportedly asked several questions about the bank accounts he owns and the deposits in them by these men posing as officers.
The bishop was also asked over the call that he was being put in ‘digital custody’ and he would be presented online in court the next day.
According to the Hindustan Times report, the bishop also attended a digital court hearing the following day, where he heard the voice of a ‘judge’ who asked him about his involvement in the case.
“I denied the allegations and said that I have no connection to the money laundering case. The fake judge then said that it was a serious case and that all my accounts would be frozen. I was told to declare my accounts and transfer the money in them into a secret service account, which is monitored by the Supreme Court. If I am found innocent, the case will be closed and the money sent back to my accounts. I thought if it helps my case, I should do as I am told and transfer Rs.13 lakh,” the priest claimed.
Following the row of calls, he was tricked by the alleged fraudsters who asked him to send another Rs 1.2 lakh since he had recently ‘withdrawn’ that amount from the account.
The bishop further said that he also received documents of the so-called ‘court verdict’ where the seal of the judge as well as receipts for the money transferred to the so-called secret service accounts was there.
Speaking to the media, Bishop Coorilos said, “The documents, along with the seals even of the Supreme Court of India, seemed genuine to me. But my suspicion arose when another person messaged me on WhatsApp pretending to be a CBI officer and asked for Rs 2 lakh as a ‘gift’ for helping me out….That’s when I suspected foul play and called a lawyer friend of mine who informed him about a similar kind of scam.”
Upon realising that he had been cheated, the victim filed complaints with the police and the cyber cell and claimed that he would talk about it publicly as he did not want anyone else to be defrauded in this manner.
The sub-inspector at the Keezhvaipur police station, Satheesh Sekhar, spoke to HT in connection to the case and said, “We received the complaint from Geevarghese Mar Coorilos on Wednesday through the cybercrime portal. After taking his statement, we have registered a case under sections 66B and 66C of the IT Act and section 318 in the Bharatiya Nyay Samhita (BNS). The probe has begun.”
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