Cons pose as MD of Kol hosp, dupe colleague into transferring 94 lakh
Times of India | 12 December 2025
Kolkata: The vice-president (finance) of Charnock Hospitals was duped into transferring Rs 94 lakh after fraudsters posing as the hospital's MD contacted him on WhatsApp and allegedly used a doctored display photograph to pressure him into making an urgent transfer.
According to the FIR lodged on Wednesday, Atanu Mukherjee (54) received a WhatsApp message on Tuesday from an unknown number displaying the photograph of MD Prashant Sharma. The message instructed him to shift all official communication to a "new number". Believing it to be a routine internal update, Mukherjee complied.
The next morning, during business hours, the same number sought details of the hospital's fund position and issued what appeared to be authoritative instructions to transfer Rs 94 lakh to a private bank account.
Mukherjee told police he realised something was amiss only after cross-checking the transaction later in the day. He immediately alerted the bank to freeze the beneficiary account.
"On realising that the instruction was fraudulent, I immediately informed the bank and requested them to freeze the said account. While the bank initiated the freezing, the fraudster had already withdrawn a considerable portion of the funds," Mukherjee wrote in his complaint.
TOI attempted to contact Sharma, but calls and text messages to his phone remained unanswered till late on Thursday.
Police have initiated a probe under BNS sections related to cheating, forgery, and criminal conspiracy. "It appears that an organised racket is behind the operation. We are tracking the money trail to locate the fraudsters and are working to recover the funds," said a senior Bidhannagar Police officer.
"We are also recording statements of several officials, including the complainant, and checking whether the MD's voice was replicated using AI," the officer added.