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India Today
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- India Today
Patna couple's Rs 1.95 cr ‘digital arrest' shows why you must coach parents, and now
If your elderly parents live in another town or city—retired, with funds, and accustomed to the gentle cadence of their routines, their worries confined to rising temperatures and mislaid spectacles—you should pick up the telephone. Not just to inquire about their health or remind them of your next visit but to warn them of a menace that wears no mask and carries no weapon, yet can strip them of every rupee they Patna, a retired physician, Dr Radhe Mohan Prasad, and wife Chhabi Prasad discovered this the hard way. From May 21 to June 3, they were subjected to what the perpetrators ominously termed a 'digital arrest'. By the time their son, Dr Saurabh Mohan, arrived from Delhi and intervened, the couple's entire life savings—Rs 1.95 crore—had vanished into the first contactIt began one sultry afternoon with a call from a Mumbai number that flashed briefly before disappearing. Dr Prasad, accustomed to calls from former colleagues and relatives, answered on the first ring. A voice—clipped and dispassionate—identified itself as that of an officer from the Central Bureau of Investigation. There had been a 'complaint' against him, the caller explained, as though reading from a script. A SIM card registered in his name had been implicated in a money-laundering network. He was told that urgent cooperation would avert immediate arrest and public disgrace. As the gravity of the claim settled over the Prasads, the caller invited them to attend a video conference with 'senior officials' at Mumbai's Colaba Police Station. No travel was necessary—everything would transpire online. When Dr Prasad hesitated, the voice chilled. 'Non-cooperation will leave us no choice but to proceed with arrest.' The couple agreed. They were frightened, theatre of deceitWhat unfolded next resembled a macabre play. For days on end, the retired doctor and his wife remained under near-constant surveillance, conveyed through a succession of video calls. The screen displayed men in khaki uniforms, their badges gleaming, seated at desks cluttered with files. On other occasions, the backdrop shifted to judges in robes, towering bookshelves, and solemn court clerks. At 3 am, a new 'warrant' would appear on screen, complete with digital signatures and official seals. The Prasads, too frightened to challenge what seemed an unassailable state apparatus, complied with every the course of 14 harrowing days, they executed six RTGS transfers. Each time, an officer's face would appear on screen to guide their trembling hands through the bank's online portal. Funds labelled as 'penalties' or 'security bonds' flowed out of their accounts with mechanical precision. At each step, the scammers imposed fresh deadlines: 'Transfer by 6 pm or we will mobilise the arrest party.'Isolation, too, was a calculated tactic. The couple were instructed not to inform anyone—even their son—lest 'the investigation be compromised'. They were told to ignore knocks on the door and dismiss calls from family as 'misinformation'. Each command came wrapped in the solemnity of legal procedure, and each left the Prasads feeling ever more of a larger threatThis was not a lone aberration but rather the most chilling iteration of a growing pattern. Across India, the 'digital arrest' scam has claimed perhaps thousands of victims. In November 2024, a former professor at Patna University was coerced into surrendering over Rs 3 crore under identical pretences. In Kolkata, a retired cardiologist yielded Rs 1 crore to 'Enforcement Directorate' officers; in Chandigarh, an 82-year-old former Indian Army colonel and his wife, in March this year, parted with Rs 3.4 crore after being told they were embroiled in a Rs 5,000 crore script varies only in minor detail—sometimes it is the Income Tax Department, sometimes Customs, sometimes the Narcotics Control Bureau—but the essence remains the same: impersonate authority, instil terror, isolate and lends these scams their potency is not any sophisticated malware or hacking software but the most archaic of techniques: fear. The dread of public humiliation, the spectre of arrest, and the instinctual deference many still feel towards uniformed officers combine to form a weapon both subtle and devastating. Elderly victims, living alone or far from their children, are particularly vulnerable. Their world, once secure, unravels when they believe the very institutions sworn to protect them have turned against and regulators have proliferated warnings: posters at ATMs, pop-ups in UPI apps, newspaper advertisements. Yet these communiqus remain abstract. They speak of 'phishing' and 'malware' but offer little defence against a live face on a familiar video-call interface. No flash banner can replicate the chilling authority of a uniformed man on screen declaring your freedom negotiable for a few lakhs. Public-service announcements are, in this war of perceptions, impotent—drowned out by the immediacy of intimate that matterThe true bulwark against such fraud is neither an app nor a poster but a conversation. Call your parents—today, if you can—and explain that no genuine agency will ever demand money via WhatsApp video, that 'digital arrest' is a fiction, and that any such request should be met with a simple response: 'I will call you back', followed by a call to them to set transaction limits, to enable real-time alerts on every outgoing transfer, to double-check any unexpected demands through an independent source. Forget the jargon; speak plainly: 'If someone tells you they are from the CBI, say no, hang up, and ring me.'advertisementEven that may sound simplistic, but it speaks to an essential truth: technological literacy without human connection is no shield. A trusted voice at the other end of the line can cut through the fog of intimidation. In the case of the Prasads, it was only when Dr Saurabh Mohan reached his parents—on an open line—that the spell broke. Recognising the panic in their voices, he coaxed them into contacting Patna's cyber-crime cell. Within hours, the faade collapsed, an FIR was registered, and the grotesque theatre of false authority the stormThe Prasads, now exhumed from their digital dungeon, are left to piece together the aftermath. The money—nearly Rs 2 crore—has dissipated across a web of shell accounts, likely routed through multiple states or abroad. Recovery is a distant hope. More immediate is their psychological recovery. They navigate each ringtone with trepidation and greet every notification with suspicion. They sleep with their phones off the bedside table—a small defiance, but a defiance ordeal stands as a warning: in the age of instant communication, the greatest breach may come not from code but from the human voice. The rise of the digital arrest scam underscores the peril that flows from unbridled faith in authority, and the ease with which that faith can be you know retired parents living out of town—particularly those who use their phones chiefly for WhatsApp and video calls—make one more call. Remind them that behind the uniforms and the seals are criminals who rely on your parents' decency. And above all, instill this simple maxim: 'Never transfer money at the behest of a caller, no matter how official they sound.'In a world where reality can be summoned with the click of a button, a familiar voice may be your parents' only passport to safety. It is a modest task—one call, a few minutes of your day—but it may spare them a ruin far worse than any drama on to India Today MagazineTrending Reel
The Hindu
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Sailesh Kolanu interview: I like my films to be self-explanatory, glad that ‘HIT 3' is offering a theatrical experience to the audience
HIT: The Third Case, or HIT 3, has brought cheer to the box office. Two days after the release of the Telugu film starring Nani and Srinidhi Shetty, which has also been dubbed in other languages, its director Sailesh Kolanu is relieved, happy and filled with gratitude. 'I finally caught up on sleep. I survived on an hour or two of sleep in the last two months, sometimes in the car rather than going home, when the film's post-production was underway,' he says, settling down for an interview at the production house Wall Poster Cinema office in Hyderabad. On the day of release, he watched the film at Prasads multiplex and at Sudarshan theatre to gauge audience reaction. 'It is great to see the energy in the theatres, and satisfying to see full halls.' Excerpts from the interview: When you work on a film for a year or more, you are too close to the material at every stage — writing, executing and post production. How critically are you able to evaluate the film? We lose objectivity midway since we are so married to the content. We have to remind ourselves of the intent and excitement with which we began the film. That keeps us going towards the finish line. Sometimes during post-production, I take a two-week break, revisit the footage to assess it better. It is tricky. Luckily, I can spot when things go wrong and discuss with my team on what can be done. Before we analyse the film, tell us about both the joy and challenges of directing actors of whom you have been a big fan — Venkatesh in Saindhavand Nani in HIT 3? In the beginning, going to the sets and saying 'action' and 'cut' to the stars I greatly admire was overwhelming. Slowly I tell myself that there is a job at hand; I have been entrusted the task of making a good film. It took me a week to stop treating Nani like a star. He, too, gave me a pep talk to put me at ease. In two instances in HIT 3, dialogues refer to Nani's career and image. These are fanboy moments. How do you decide how much fan service can be done while still staying true to the story? These dialogues were not premeditated and incorporated into the film. As I was working on the screenplay, I thought it would be fun to have these 'meta' references. Those moments are evoking great response in the theatres since they work in the context of the actor as well as the story. HIT 1 & HIT 2 were based on true incidents. HIT 3 is about a gang operating on the dark web. Is this fictional, but inspired by several real life incidents? The film mentions BTK in passing, but that is a different case of one serial killer in the United States who was nabbed after three decades. Several cults operate on the dark web. We did extensive research and also approached the cyber crime wing in Hyderabad for help. The issues on the dark web are deep and real, we exaggerated for the sake of the film. Vikram Rudraraju (Vishwak Sen) in the first film and Arjun Sarkaar (Nani) in the third film have their vulnerabilities. The former has PTSD and the latter is on the verge of midlife crisis. Is the intention to make these cops more human? Yes, these traits — Vikram's anxiety attacks and Arjun's hypertension and relationship struggles — make them more relatable to the audience, rather than them being invincible cops. You outline Arjun Sarkaar's personal life but reveal just what is required, trusting the audience to comprehend… I thought it would be enough to show a few aspects — his friction with his father, admiration for grandmother and emptiness after his mother's passing — to make people empathise with him. There are moments when he breaks down. It establishes that he is not the coldhearted man he is made out to be. The first two films in the HIT universe or HIT-verse played out like whodunnit crime novels. The third begins similarly but moves into a high action zone. How happy are you with the amalgamation? Very happy. This is what we wanted, to give the audience a theatrical experience. I wanted the transition to be seamless, so that the audience does not feel a disconnect with the HIT-verse. We began with the investigation and transitioned into a survival thriller. Mickey J Meyer's background score is quite unconventional. What was your brief to him? My brief to him was to keep the audience at the edge of their seats, and make them go berserk during theatrical moments. We wanted the music to work in the background, without preempting the emotions or screaming for attention. I prefer it that way. I want people to say they watched a good film, rather than single out the music or some other aspect. A film has to work as a whole. His music was in a new-age zone, using percussion and rhythm. The choice of the antagonist (name withheld to avoid spoilers) is also interesting. What made you cast someone who is unlike the macho villains we usually see in Telugu cinema? I like this actor's work a lot. If you notice, he is amiable when he receives Arjun Sarkaar and slowly his darker side is revealed. We did not reveal a backstory to address questions as to what made him the way he is, since nothing can justify his behaviour. In fact, many serial killers, like the ones shown on Netflix's Dahmer, do not know the reason for their behaviour. Production designer Sri Nagendra Tangala mentioned three layers in the design, and a backstory of the hideout. Can you elaborate? Part of the explanation is in the film. The riverside palace in the Northeast, close to Burma, is 150-years-old. After it ceased to be a palace, it functioned as a hospital and was then abandoned. There are three layers of detailing in every frame. Pause any frame in these portions of the film and one can notice the palace ruins, the hospital ramps or small boards, or the new bamboo structures that are holding the broken pillars together. The boxing ring is among the newer wooden structures. The audience is likely to notice several fine details on repeat viewing. The writing did not have many loose ends in the first two films, but this time a few questions have cropped up. One pertains to how the antagonist did not do a thorough check of the new members, especially Arjun Sarkaar. Can it be argued that even if a photo search was done, it may not help since the fictional Homicide Intervention Team works in the background unlike mainstream police? I like my films to be self explanatory, but let me explain. It is nice that people are raising such questions. But I have done my research. From what I know, we do not have sufficient facial recognition mechanisms in India. If it is available, several crime cases can be solved easily. Only popular faces can be searched. We do not even have an extensive DNA database to identify people. I take care while writing; if there are lapses, I would have to answer to a 100 people on the sets while filming. How come an officer with sharp observational skills does not notice or recall Mrudala (Srinidhi Shetty) from the earlier days? Can this be attributed to cinematic licence? I was a lecturer for nearly a decade and let me tell you that except for a few bright students that I am in touch with, I do not remember the faces of the others. In this film, the police officer was only a guest lecturer. Is Vikram Rudraraju (Vishwak) still on a sabbatical? Did you not want to rope him in as well for a cameo? It was already a stretch to show KD (Adivi Sesh) stepping in to help. It would have taken it too far to show Vikram also entering at that time. Though it would have made for a great theatrical moment, let me save it for one of the later films. The bilingual actor (name undisclosed to avoid spoilers) who will lead HIT 4 has already been a part of investigative cop dramas. Your film will have to raise the bar higher. Absolutely. The core idea of the crime and the story is ready, but I am yet to flesh out the screenplay. What's next? I will begin writing my next film, which may be a romcom or a fun film without blood and gore. That will help me return to this cop universe with a fresh approach.
