Police Sub-Inspector in Bandra East Duped of ₹78,765 in Cyber Fraud

A 58-year-old police sub-inspector residing in Bandra East was allegedly duped of ₹78,765 through unauthorized online transactions after clicking a suspicious link on his mobile phone on August 13. The officer, identified as Virnodkar, is attached to the Goregaon police station, currently posted at the Bombay High Court, and due to retire in a few months.

According to police officials, the fraud began around 11:15 am on August 13 while Virnodkar was at his government quarters located in Bandra East. After he allegedly clicked on a suspicious link, his mobile phone stopped functioning properly, and the screen displayed the message "Emergency Calling."

To regain access to the handset, the sub-inspector restarted the device using his email ID. However, once the phone booted back up, he found that several applications were missing and stored data had been completely erased from the system. Suspecting that the device had been compromised by malicious software, Virnodkar reinstalled the Google Pay application on August 14.

The officer only discovered that money had been siphoned from his savings account two days after the initial incident. On August 15, while attempting to make a payment at a petrol pump, he noticed that his account balance was substantially lower than expected. A review of his account statements revealed two unauthorized debit transactions totaling ₹78,765—one for ₹48,765 and another for ₹30,000.

Following the discovery of the missing funds, Virnodkar promptly reported the matter to the authorities by calling the 1930 cybercrime helpline. He also lodged a formal complaint with the local Kherwadi police station.

The Kherwadi police have registered a First Information Report (FIR) regarding the cyber fraud. Investigators are currently tracking the digital trail and examining bank records to trace the beneficiary accounts where the siphoned funds were transferred.