Latest news with #PushpalataJharia
Mint
4 hours ago
- Mint
ASHA worker duped in ₹4 lakh scam, still believes fraudsters were ‘good people'
An ASHA worker from Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur fell prey to an elaborate lottery scam that left her not only financially devastated but also psychologically scarred. Pushpalata Jharia, 36, from the Bargi police station area, was lured by the promise of diamonds, gold, and a ₹ 10 lakh cash prize – a lie that spiralled into months of emotional manipulation, financial ruin, and a staged kidnapping. Pushpalata, who balances her role as a health worker with raising two children and supporting a husband doing odd jobs, had only ever believed that rewards came from hard work. But a single phone call in March changed the course of her life. The call came from a foreign number via a VPN line. The caller claimed Pushpalata had won a mega lottery but needed to pay a small processing fee to claim it. What began as a minor payment soon escalated into a string of transfers. The fraudsters kept her on the hook with repeated calls, threats, and false assurances. At one point, she was told her Aadhaar card had been discovered with a courier carrying her 'lottery prize' who had been arrested. Unless she paid more, they warned, she too could be in trouble. Trapped between fear and desperation, Pushpalata sent ₹ 4 lakh over a span of one and a half months. The money was sourced through loans from relatives and desperate pleas for help. 'She kept asking villagers and relatives for money. When we asked why, she said she was helping a relative,' her sister-in-law Asha Jharia told NDTV. 'Once, she even sent money using my daughter's phone. We begged her to stop — we barely had enough for ourselves.' On April 23, Pushpalata visited her maternal home. Three days later, she vanished, telling her family she was headed to Bargi but never returned. A missing person's report was filed on May 4. In reality, she had begun a lonely journey across several cities — Jabalpur, Mumbai, Surat, and Delhi — surviving on free meals, sleeping at stations, and taking up odd jobs. She would use borrowed phones to occasionally contact her family, all while continuing to send money to her unseen handlers. The fraudsters later forced her to record a distressing video. In it, Pushpalata is seen crying and pleading for help. The video was sent to her husband, along with a demand for ₹ 2 lakh. The threats were severe: if the money wasn't paid, her body would be 'chopped into pieces and thrown into the forest.' 'She got a call in March about some prize. Slowly she started sending money. Then one day, we got a video where she was crying, and it said she'd been kidnapped. We were terrified,' her daughter Poonam said. The incident left the family shaken. Pushpalata's mother approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court and filed a habeas corpus plea. On the court's orders, four police teams were assigned to trace her. The breakthrough came when Pushpalata made a call from a stolen phone in Greater Noida. Authorities traced the number and found her on a quiet Monday afternoon. 'She was physically weak and mentally disoriented,' CSP Anjul Mishra of Bargi was quoted by NDTV. 'She's still under the illusion that this was all part of a bigger plan and she will be rewarded in the end.' Even after her rescue, Pushpalata believes the fraudsters are 'good people' and that her prize is still real. Police officials have begun counselling her to help break the psychological hold of the scam. Investigators are now working to trace the digital footprint of the scam, which appears to originate from foreign servers. 'We received multiple audio messages with horrific abuse,' said Mishra. 'The kidnapping video came from a foreign source. The country hosting the IP is not cooperating, making it harder to trace the fraudsters.'
Mint
6 hours ago
- Mint
A phone call changed everything! Scamsters dupe ASHA worker of ₹4 lakh, she still believes they were ‘good people'
An ASHA worker from Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur fell prey to an elaborate lottery scam that left her not only financially devastated but also psychologically scarred. Pushpalata Jharia, 36, from the Bargi police station area, was lured by the promise of diamonds, gold, and a ₹ 10 lakh cash prize – a lie that spiralled into months of emotional manipulation, financial ruin, and a staged kidnapping. Pushpalata, who balances her role as a health worker with raising two children and supporting a husband doing odd jobs, had only ever believed that rewards came from hard work. But a single phone call in March changed the course of her life. The call came from a foreign number via a VPN line. The caller claimed Pushpalata had won a mega lottery but needed to pay a small processing fee to claim it. What began as a minor payment soon escalated into a string of transfers. The fraudsters kept her on the hook with repeated calls, threats, and false assurances. At one point, she was told her Aadhaar card had been discovered with a courier carrying her 'lottery prize' who had been arrested. Unless she paid more, they warned, she too could be in trouble. Trapped between fear and desperation, Pushpalata sent ₹ 4 lakh over a span of one and a half months. The money was sourced through loans from relatives and desperate pleas for help. 'She kept asking villagers and relatives for money. When we asked why, she said she was helping a relative,' her sister-in-law Asha Jharia told NDTV. 'Once, she even sent money using my daughter's phone. We begged her to stop — we barely had enough for ourselves.' On April 23, Pushpalata visited her maternal home. Three days later, she vanished, telling her family she was headed to Bargi but never returned. A missing person's report was filed on May 4. In reality, she had begun a lonely journey across several cities — Jabalpur, Mumbai, Surat, and Delhi — surviving on free meals, sleeping at stations, and taking up odd jobs. She would use borrowed phones to occasionally contact her family, all while continuing to send money to her unseen handlers. The fraudsters later forced her to record a distressing video. In it, Pushpalata is seen crying and pleading for help. The video was sent to her husband, along with a demand for ₹ 2 lakh. The threats were severe: if the money wasn't paid, her body would be 'chopped into pieces and thrown into the forest.' 'She got a call in March about some prize. Slowly she started sending money. Then one day, we got a video where she was crying, and it said she'd been kidnapped. We were terrified,' her daughter Poonam said. The incident left the family shaken. Pushpalata's mother approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court and filed a habeas corpus plea. On the court's orders, four police teams were assigned to trace her. The breakthrough came when Pushpalata made a call from a stolen phone in Greater Noida. Authorities traced the number and found her on a quiet Monday afternoon. 'She was physically weak and mentally disoriented,' CSP Anjul Mishra of Bargi was quoted by NDTV. 'She's still under the illusion that this was all part of a bigger plan and she will be rewarded in the end.' Even after her rescue, Pushpalata believes the fraudsters are 'good people' and that her prize is still real. Police officials have begun counselling her to help break the psychological hold of the scam. Investigators are now working to trace the digital footprint of the scam, which appears to originate from foreign servers. 'We received multiple audio messages with horrific abuse,' said Mishra. 'The kidnapping video came from a foreign source. The country hosting the IP is not cooperating, making it harder to trace the fraudsters.' Authorities continue their efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice while helping Pushpalata regain her footing after a harrowing ordeal that nearly cost her everything.
New Indian Express
8 hours ago
- New Indian Express
ASHA worker duped by cyber fraudsters; fakes own abduction after lottery scam in MP
BHOPAL: An ASHA worker in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur district suffered mental trauma and financial loss after cyber fraudsters lured her with a fake lottery, manipulated her with arrest threats, and pushed her to fake her own kidnapping. In March 2025, Jabalpur-resident 36-year-old Pushpalata Jharia got a call from a foreign VPN number, where the caller informed her about having won gold, diamond and a lottery prize worth Rs 10 lakh. To get the prize, she was first asked to deposit some money online, and then the fraudsters started contacting her regularly. A few days later, the fraudsters said that the person assigned to deliver the lottery prize had been arrested. Since her Aadhaar card copy was with him, they warned, she could also face arrest soon. Caught between fear and greed, the woman, whose husband does small jobs and the couple have two children, sent four lakh rupees online. When the relatives came to know about such a big transaction, they questioned the woman, but the fraudsters had cautioned her that if she told anyone, the reward would be cancelled, which made her remain silent. On April 23, she went to her parents' home. Two days later she left saying that she was going to Bargi, but then went missing. Her family lodged a missing report with the local police on May 4. Swayed by the fraudsters, the woman kept wandering from Jabalpur to Mumbai, then Surat and finally to Delhi. She spent the nights at railway stations, ate free food, and kept sending more money to the fraudsters by working wherever possible. Her ordeal worsened when the fraudsters instructed her to fake her own kidnapping. She recorded a video in tears and sent it to them, which they forwarded to her husband on June 1, demanding Rs 2 lakh as ransom. They threatened that failure to pay would result in her being killed and her body dismembered and dumped in a forest. Worried about her daughter's life, her mother filed a habeas corpus petition in the Madhya Pradesh High Court. On the court's direction, the police deployed four teams for the search. During this time, the woman's phone was stolen, but she called her relatives from someone else's phone, which gave her location in Greater Noida. On Monday (June 16), the police team recovered her safely from there. Though reunited with her family after a month and a half, the woman remains mentally disturbed, experiencing dizziness, trembling, and delusional belief that the fraudsters are innocent and will still reward her. Police have initiated her counselling and launched a search for the cyber criminals. The victim's sister-in-law, Asha Jharia, while recounting what happened over the last few months, said, 'when she was constantly asking for money from relatives and villagers, we asked her why she needed money. She said that she is helping a relative. Once she even sent money from my daughter's phone. We explained many times that when there is no money in your own house, then why are you helping others, but she was not ready to accept.' Pushpalata's college-going daughter, Poonam, said, 'My mother got a call in March, in which a reward was promised, which included gold and diamond jewellery and cash. In return, she was asked for five lakh rupees. Slowly, mother kept giving money. Later, one day, a message came about kidnapping, which scared all of us. We contacted the police. The last call came early this month, saying that 'We've left your mother in Delhi, go and pick her up.' Since then, the calls have stopped. She's back home, but still thinks that she will get the reward.' According to Circle SP (Bargi-Jabalpur), A Mishra, under whose supervision the case is being investigated, four to five police teams had been deployed to trace the woman. 'Wherever the call came from, our team reached there, but in each case, the woman had borrowed a phone from an unknown person to make the call,' he said. The investigation later revealed that those whose phones were used were innocent and had merely offered help. Mishra added that the situation worsened when the fraudsters sent a video of the woman's fake kidnapping to her family, which was traced to a foreign IP address. 'This country is not cooperating with us these days,' he said. The case took a more disturbing turn when threatening audio messages with abusive language began to arrive, warning that the woman would be killed. 'When we recovered her in Delhi, she was sitting alone. We are counselling her because she still has not come out of the delusion. She believes she has not been conned and that she will still get the reward,' he added.
News18
11 hours ago
- News18
Promise of Gold, Cash: How A Fake Call Turned Into Months-Long Nightmare For This ASHA Worker
Last Updated: Pushpalata Jharia, an ASHA worker from Jabalpur, fell victim to a cyber scam, losing Rs 4 lakh and enduring months of hardship. As rising cybercrime keeps cyber cell on its toes with new cases emerging every day, a woman in Madhya Pradesh became the latest victim of the digital fraud which 'she still believes" will earn her promised reward. Pushpalata Jharia, a 36-year-old ASHA worker from Bargi area of Jabalpur, had always believed that hard work pays off and brings its own rewards. Jharia life mostly revolved around caring for villagers' health, raising her two children, and supporting her husband, who did odd jobs to keep the family going. But her life turned upside down after she got a phone call in March, dragging her into a months-long nightmare. According to a report in NDTV, in March, Pushpalata received a call from a foreign number that promised her a grand prize of diamonds, gold, and Rs 10 lakh in cash. The caller told her she would have to pay a small 'processing" fee in order to claim it. As the web of deceit continued, that fee snowballed into a total of Rs 4 lakh—money she didn't have. Excited, the fraud victim borrowed money from relatives, others and even used her niece's phone to transfer funds. In order to make Pushpalata remain trapped in their web, the clever conmen warned her to stay silent else she would lose the prize. Believing the fraudsters to be genuine people, she stayed quiet. The scam continued for weeks. Later on, fraudsters claiming a courier guy who was carrying her prize had been arrested and her Aadhaar card found with him, threatened her to pay more money to evade arrest. Caught between fear and hope, Pushpalata kept paying. Her story took dramatic turn when she disappeared from her maternal home in April, raising suspicions and prompting her family to a missing report on May 4. It came to light that during her 'missing" period, Pushpalata had begun a heartbreaking journey—from Jabalpur to Mumbai, then Surat, and finally Delhi. Spending days at railway stations and surviving on langar meals, she sent whatever money she earned from odd jobs to the scammers. Her ordeal came to light in June when conmen made her record a video, appearing kidnapped, sobbing, and pleading for help. The video was then sent to her husband, demanding a Rs 2 lakh ransom, threatening to kill her if money wasn't paid. Out of fear, her family approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court, which then ordered a police investigation. Fortunately, a phone call from Greater Noida helped trace her. She was rescued on a lonely afternoon, weak and emotionally shattered. Even after meeting her family members, Pushpalata remained under the scammers' spell. 'She's still under the illusion that this was all part of a bigger plan and she will be rewarded in the end," NDTV quoted CSP Anjul Mishra as saying. 'We are counselling her," the CSP added. With the cyber trail pointing to foreign IP addresses, the cyber con are still at large. Authorities say it is difficult to trace them easily due to lack of international cooperation. Meanwhile, Pushpalata struggles to reclaim her reality after losing everything to a lie. First Published: June 20, 2025, 12:15 IST
NDTV
12 hours ago
- NDTV
Trapped By A Lie: ASHA Worker Lost Rs 4 Lakh And Her Sanity To Lottery Scam
Pushpalata Jharia had only heard of rewards for hard work. As an ASHA worker in the Bargi police station area of Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur, her days revolved around taking care of villagers' health, managing her two children, and supporting her husband who did odd jobs to keep the family afloat. But one day, a phone call shattered the life she had built. A promise of diamonds, gold, and a cash prize of ten lakh rupees arrived with a foreign number and a carefully planted lie. The 36-year-old woman couldn't have known that she had just stepped into a psychological trap that would last for one and a half months - a trap so manipulative that it stripped her of not just Rs 4 lakh, but her own sense of self. The Call That Changed Everything It started in March with an unknown number flashing on her phone - a foreign VPN line. A smooth voice on the other side told her she had won a mega lottery. All she had to do was pay a small "processing" fee. From there, a web of deception began to tighten. One transaction led to another. The fraudsters kept her hooked with constant calls, emotional manipulation, and mounting fear. Soon, they spun a new tale: the courier carrying her lottery prize had been arrested, and her Aadhaar card was found with him. She was next, they warned, unless she sent more money. Pushed between fear and blind hope, Pushpalata transferred a total of Rs 4 lakh - money she didn't have. Some she borrowed from relatives. Some she begged for. And when the questions started at home, she was told to keep it a secret, or the prize would be cancelled. She Left Everything Behind On April 23, Pushpalata went to her maternal home. Three days later, she disappeared - telling her family she was going to Bargi, but instead, she vanished. A missing person's report was filed on May 4. But what no one expected was that Pushpalata had already begun a long and painful journey across cities - chasing a lie. From Jabalpur to Mumbai, then Surat, and finally to Delhi - she kept moving, sleeping at railway stations, eating free langar meals, and calling her family only from borrowed phones. She would take odd jobs, collect some money, and send it to her invisible "masters." The Kidnapping Drama The conmen weren't done. In June, they made her shoot a video - crying, scared, begging. They sent it to her husband and demanded a ransom of Rs 2 lakh. The threats were brutal: if the money wasn't paid, her body would be chopped into pieces and thrown into the forest. Her daughter, Poonam said "She got a call in March about some prize. Slowly she started sending money. Then one day, we got a video where she was crying, and it said she'd been kidnapped. We were terrified." This shook the family to its core. Her mother approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court and filed a habeas corpus petition. On the court's orders, four police teams were deployed. It was a stolen phone call made from Greater Noida that finally cracked the case. The police traced her and recovered her on a lonely Monday afternoon. "She Still Believes She'll Get The Reward" When Pushpalata was found, she was disoriented and weak. According to police, her hands trembled, her body shivered, and her belief that the fraudsters were still "good people" remained firm. "We are counselling her," said CSP Anjul Mishra of Bargi, who led the investigation. "She's still under the illusion that this was all part of a bigger plan and she will be rewarded in the end." Her mental state is fragile, and reality is hard to digest for a woman who sacrificed everything chasing a dream that never existed. Pushpalata's sister-in-law, Asha Jharia, told NDTV: "She kept asking villagers and relatives for money. When we asked why, she said she was helping a relative. Once, she even sent money using my daughter's phone. We begged her to stop - we barely had enough for ourselves." Police are now tracking the cyber trail. The fraud originated from foreign IP addresses, making the process more complex. "We received multiple audio messages with horrific abuse," CSP Anjul Mishra said. "The kidnapping video came from a foreign source. The country hosting the IP is not cooperating, making it harder to trace the fraudsters."
