For 78-year-old retired banker Naresh Malhotra, daily strolls in Gulmohar Park, club visits, and adda sessions with friends appeared ordinary over the past six weeks. But during this period, he transferred Rs 22.92 crore from his accounts to 16 different bank accounts in 21 separate transactions.

Malhotra said, “It is as if I were possessed and had lost all my senses; my thinking process was completely taken over by the scammers.”

The fraudsters posed as officers from the Enforcement Directorate and Mumbai Police, keeping him under constant control and approving even small withdrawals for staff salaries.

It took six weeks for Malhotra to report the fraud. He filed a complaint on September 19, and an FIR was registered the same day. The Delhi Police’s IFSO (Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Operations) Branch began tracing the money.

According to Rajneesh Gupta, Joint Commissioner of IFSO, Malhotra’s money, initially moved in 21 transactions, has now splintered into 4,236 smaller transfers across seven layers. “We have seen money move in as many as 20 layers. The golden hour of immediately reporting the losses was lost in the case. This makes nabbing the scammers and freezing the funds difficult,” Gupta said.

Between August 4 and September 4, Malhotra visited three nearby bank branches 21 times to transfer funds via RTGS to accounts in Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu. Remarkably, none of the funds were sent to banks in Delhi.

So far, only Rs 2.67 crore has been frozen in various accounts. Gupta said, “Since this is only a portion of the stolen funds, we are far from satisfied; we have miles to go.”

Malhotra said the ordeal started on August 1, when a caller claimed his identity was used for terror-funding. The scammers insisted the money must be sent as surety to the RBI and the Supreme Court, which would supposedly be returned later.

“All through these six weeks, even my petty withdrawals for daily expenses and staff salary and so on had to be approved by the scammers… They had taken over my life…,” he added.

On September 19, the scammers demanded Rs 5 crore be sent to a private company in West Bengal. Malhotra refused: “I told them I will not do a third-party transfer. I put my foot down and said I would go to the Registrar of the Supreme Court and deposit Rs 5 crore but not to a private company. They threatened me with immediate arrest. I said arrest me. On my belligerence, they disconnected the phone and that was it…”

Malhotra’s withdrawals were spread across Central Bank (Rs 9.68 crore), HDFC Bank (Rs 8.34 crore), and Kotak Mahindra Bank (Rs 4.90 crore). Bank managers said they had no idea that he was under coercion. One manager recalled: “There was no question of their staff raising a red flag over his hefty transfers since he came himself and showed no sign of anxiety. He even sat, spoke and occasionally had a cup of tea when he made these very transfers.”