77-yr-old ex-VC in two-week digital arrest, loses 35 lakh
Times of India | 28 January 2026
Kolkata: A 77-year-old former vice chancellor of a state varsity and 2 private universities, Ashoke Ranjan Thakur, was cheated of Rs 35 lakh in a digital arrest fraud and was under house arrest for almost two weeks since the first week of Jan. Thakur, a resident of Salt Lake, is an academic and administrator who also served as the pro-VC of Jadavpur University from March 2001 to Dec 2003.
Cops said Thakur and his wife were duped by crooks who impersonated officials of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre and law enforcement agencies. They also threatened him with arrest under the National Security Act. According to police, between Jan 1 and Jan 14, Thakur received multiple calls from fraudsters who allegedly threatened him with arrest in a fabricated criminal case, accusing him of having links with Sadakat Khan, an accused held last year in connection with a human trafficking racket operating out of Cambodia and linked to cybercrime syndicates.
"I was shown a Supreme Court notice wherein I was depicted as a suspect, and it bore my Aadhar Card number. It stated that within a day of the notice I shall be taken into custody, and this may lead to freezing of all my assets and a remand of one and a half years," Thakur said. "The ‘cops' asked me to share the screen with my wife, so that for the next few days whenever any conversation took place she was present. I was forced to report my whereabouts every two hours," he added.
Police said the accused induced Thakur to liquidate his deposits and transfer money for ‘verification'. On Jan 3, Rs 20 lakh was transferred to an account in the name of Shree Ganesh Telecom. Then, on Jan 7, Rs 15 lakh was transferred to another account in the name of Nature Bio Agri Chem Pvt Ltd. After the transfers, the callers stopped all communication.