Minister, too, gets ‘digital arrest’ call, cops urge citizens to be vigilant
Times of India | 30 November 2025
Kolkata: Even a minister was not spared a digital arrest threat.
State minister of disaster management Javed Ahmed Khan received a call from someone who claimed to be from the Mumbai cybercrime wing. When Khan, also the Kasba MLA, told the caller to reroute their queries through Lalbazar, he put him on a conference call with an "officer from the DD Cyber Cell", who, too, made the same demand. Khan lodged a complaint at the Tiljala PS on Friday.
"I received a call at 2 pm on my mobile, where the caller said he was calling from the Cyber Crime unit, Mumbai. In an intimidating tone, he claimed that I took another number on Sept 25 in Mumbai. I politely told him I have not visited Mumbai or Maharashtra in my lifetime and have not taken any number except the one in my name, which I have used for the last 20 to 25 years," Khan wrote in his complaint. The minister asked the caller to contact Lalbazar and send the complaint details to the CP's office. The caller immediately connected another person on conference mode, saying the other person was from the ‘cybercrime department, Lalbazar'. KP does not have such a department.
"The new caller identified himself as an officer of cybercrime, Kolkata Lalbazar. He said they received a complaint from the cybercrime department, Mumbai, and repeated the same version of the earlier caller. I told this man to verify the complaint and send me the details in writing, to which I will respond in writing. He suggested that I lodged a written complaint with the cybercrime department, Mumbai, in person," wrote Khan.
It was then that Khan disclosed his identity as the Kasba MLA and told the caller to send him the Mumbai cybercrime emial ID on his WhatsApp. "But till now, I have not received any information or email ID. So I suspect this to be the work of a scamster gang," Khan wrote in his complaint.
A Lalbazar officer pointed out that this was exactly how cyber crooks needed to be handled. "It is a textbook example of what to do," he said. Police had 48 hours ago released an awareness video. "After a Parnasree elderly man lost Rs 3 crore to digital arrest fraud, we issued a video, asking people to verify such calls before responding," the officer said.