India, March 12 -- A 64-year-old retired Indian Railways officer from Badlapur was duped of Rs.1.56 crore in a "digital arrest" cyber scam, with fraudsters posing as officials from the law enforcement and telecom department and threatening him with arrest.

Police said the victim received a call from an unknown number on February 12. The caller claimed to be a telecom department officer and alleged that the victim had sent obscene messages to more than 40 women and that hawala money had been routed to his bank accounts.

The caller then connected him to another person posing as a Mumbai Crime Branch officer, who verified his Aadhaar details and pressured him to cooperate.

The fraudsters forced the victim to download the Telegram applicat...