This is perhaps the first incident in Bhopal where fear induced by cyber fraudsters involved in digital arrest has resulted in a death by suicide.

A senior officer from the Jahangirabad police station said the suicide note and Verma’s mobile phone have been sent for detailed forensic analysis, particularly to trace and apprehend those who threatened him with false terror funding charges.

According to Verma’s relatives, the advocate’s son works in Pune, while his wife had travelled to Delhi to visit their daughter, who is married and lives in the national capital.

This is the second instance in less than three weeks in Bhopal where cyber fraudsters have targeted an elderly advocate by threatening to frame them in a terror funding case. On 3 November, another aged advocate in the Kohfiza area was targeted by fraudsters who threatened him with severe action for purported involvement in funding the Pulwama attack. He was, however, saved in time from losing lakhs of rupees to those posing as anti-terror officers.

On 20 November, cyber fraudsters extorted ₹68 lakh from a retired bank manager through digital arrest in Bhopal’s Shahpura area. In the same month, a retired official of a public-sector enterprise and his wife were kept under digital arrest for several days by cyber thugs, who reportedly extorted ₹65 lakh from them.