How a retired Kerala couple battling cancer endured 11 days of 'digital arrest' and lost ₹2.4 crore

Kasaragod: "We lost the money. But we can breathe now," says Dr S Lathika* (72), a former government homoeopathy doctor who retired as District Medical Officer. "If I had known about this fraud, I would never have answered the call... At the very least, I would have disconnected immediately," says her husband, Shankaran Bhattathiri* (69), a retired government school headmaster.

The elderly couple fell victim to a widely reported cyber scam called 'digital arrest', losing ₹2.4 crore -- one of the largest sums lost in the district.

What made the crime even more harrowing was its prolonged torment. For 11 days and nights, they were trapped in the scamsters' vicious psychological grip -- isolated, constantly monitored, and pushed to the brink of emotional and physical collapse. "We were not allowed to turn off the video call, even at night. The light from the phone kept us awake -- not that we could have slept with someone watching us," Dr Lathika said. "Whenever my phone ran out of battery or overheated, they would call my husband's phone and make me plug in my phone immediately," she recalled.

"We had to take permission even to step out to buy milk," Bhattathiri said. If he failed to return within the allotted time, the couple faced another round of interrogation and threats of arrest.

The scamsters showed no mercy, not even for Dr Lathika's medical needs. "I had an appointment at the Mangalore Institute of Oncology for a lump in my breast on August 12. After days of pleading, they allowed me to go on August 20." She hired a taxi for the two-hour trip to Mangaluru, completed her tests and consultation, and rushed home by 4 pm. "The doctors found the lump was malignant, but I was more worried about reaching home in time," she said. "They were constantly threatening to arrest us and shame us in society if we did not follow their orders."

How it all started
The couple lives alone in a rented house in Kanhangad town. The two-storey building has two units on the ground floor and two on the first floor. They occupy one part of the first floor. "We didn’t build our own house or buy a car. We often thought of buying a home, but we were saving up for medical emergencies, because we have to take care of ourselves," Dr Lathika, her voice tinged with regret. "If we had bought a house, we wouldn't have lost this much money."

Around 11 am on Sunday, August 10, Lathika's phone rang. It was an unknown international number. "I answered it. I shouldn't have," said her husband Bhattathiri; he too slipping into regret. 

The caller spoke in Hindi, claiming to be from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the statutory body responsible for setting tariff policies and ensuring fair competition in the telecom industry. 

He mentioned that Dr Lathika's name and phone number had cropped up in a money-laundering case being investigated by the CBI, and that an officer from the agency would contact her. The call shattered their Sunday. Within minutes, Dr Lathika received a WhatsApp video call; the stage was set.

"I touched the key and an officer in uniform appeared on the video," Bhattathiri recalled. "He said he was from the CBI. There was a huge emblem of the CBI on the wall behind him." The caller had a translator, a Tamilian who spoke Malayalam.

The 'CBI officer' claimed that during a raid at former Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal's house, they had found documents and bank details belonging to Dr Lathika. He flashed a Canara Bank ATM card on the screen, claiming it belonged to her, and the account had received ₹20 lakh since 2022.

The CBI and the ED are investigating Goyal for money laundering after Canara Bank accused him of defaulting on a loan, with ₹538 crore still unpaid.

"But I don’t have an account with Canara Bank," said Dr Lathika. That was when the caller flashed her Aadhaar on screen, saying the bank account was linked to it. "We fell for the scam then because the Aadhaar was real," Bhattathiri said.

From that moment, the couple fell completely under the scamsters' control. "We were not allowed to call our friends or relatives. But it did not occur to us to call them either. We were hypnotised," said Bhattathiri. "They made us close the front door. The house has no cross-ventilation. It was suffocating inside," added Dr Lathika.

On August 13, three days after being locked in, Bhattathiri went to his bank and transferred ₹50 lakh to the scamsters. Before transferring the money, the couple appeared before a "CBI judge" through a WhatsApp video call. "The CBI judge called out our names and asked if we were the couple," the retired school teacher recalled.

Later, the CBI officer instructed them to transfer the money to the Supreme Court's bank account to verify whether it was linked to the money laundering case they were investigating. As Bhattathiri said, they were "hypnotised" and could not see through these outlandish claims.

On August 19, he transferred another ₹70 lakh, followed by three more transactions of ₹50 lakh, ₹20 lakh, and ₹50 lakh, the last on August 21. "I retired 14 years ago. All my money came from my 32 years of service, my gratuity, and pension," said Bhattathiri. Dr Lathika, who retired in 2008, said that they had saved about half their salary or pension and had very few expenses.

Their ordeal ended on August 21, when Dr Lathika's younger brother in Wayanad grew suspicious of her behaviour over the past 10 days. "He is a retired bank employee. At first, he thought I was acting strangely due to medication. Then he assumed my husband and I were not getting along," she said.

The brother, who often calls Dr Lathika, would have come earlier but was delayed by family emergencies. "When he came, I took him to the terrace and told him about the ongoing investigation," she said.

The former banker immediately realised his sister and brother-in-law were being conned and took Bhattathiri to the bank to stop at least the last transaction and file a police complaint. Even then, Bhattathiri found it hard to believe he was being scammed. "I took their permission before leaving home. I told them I had to buy medicine for my (high blood) pressure," he said.

The transfers had gone from Karnataka Bank and Bank of India to Yes Bank, IndusInd Bank, and ICICI Bank. The Bank of India manager had suspicions and tried to delay the transactions, questioning him each time, but Bhattathiri repeated the story the scammers had coached him to say -- that he needed the money to buy a plot to build a house.

When he was at the Cyber Police Station, the scammers video-called him to pressure him about the delay. The police took him to a cabin and made him attend the call. Seeing a different background, they questioned him once more.

Kasaragod Cyber Police, investigating the case, said the last transaction of ₹50 lakh has been marked as a lien or withheld. "By the time we acted, much of it had already been disbursed in smaller amounts of Rs ₹lakh, ₹2 lakh, and ₹5 lakh across various bank accounts," said Raveendran, an officer at the station. All the money in these accounts has now been marked as a lien. "We suspect the scammers were operating out of a Southeast Asian country, possibly Cambodia," he said.

A day after the police case was registered, the scamsters messaged the couple again. "They sent a 'Good morning'. We ignored it," said Bhattathiri.

(*Name changed to protect identities.)