New Delhi

SP Oswal, the CEO of India's largest textile group Vardhaman, is the latest victim of cyber criminals who extorted 70 million rupees from him in an elaborate scheme that put him in a so-called 'digital custody'. Two people have been arrested from the eastern state of Assam in this connection and most of the money recovered.

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Speaking to Indian media, 82-year-old Oswal said the fraudsters posed as Indian regulators, investigative agency sleuths, police, and the Chief Justice of India in a fake 'Supreme Court hearing' over Skype, to make him pay for a 'money laundering' case in which he was, according to them, a co-accused along with Jet Airways founder Naresh Goel.

Watch: Digital arrest: The growing threat of cyberattacks

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The lid was blown on the fraud after Oswal, the recipient of one of India's top civilian honours the Padma Bhushan, refused to pay more money, and filed a police case and told the fraudsters he would rather die in police custody.

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The Ludhiana Police on Sunday (Sep 29) arrested two suspects from Assam. Seven other suspects, from states including West Bengal and Delhi, have been identified. Some 52 million rupees have been recovered from the fraudsters' accounts.

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"My ordeal is nothing short of a movie script to make others aware of such fraudsters,” Indian Express newspaper quoted him as saying.

Here is what happened to SP Oswal

In the first call on August 27, a fraudser posing as Telecom Regulatory Authority of India official asked him to press nine to prevent disconnection from telecom services. He pressed nine. Then a cyber criminal posing as an official from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) called him about his suspected involvement in the money laundering case against Naresh Goel.

Oswal, who told the paper that he never met Goel in his life, said the fraudsters sent him documents with Mumbai police insignia.

Then the 'CBI team' took him into 'digital custody over Skype' after sending him an order to this effect on his WhatsApp.

"They repeatedly told me not to share anything with anyone as it would be a violation of surveillance rules and I could be imprisoned for three to five years. They started my digital surveillance...and said I could not leave the house without their permission. I never used Skype, nor knew how to. They created my Skype account and started digital surveillance," he was quoted as saying. 

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Then he was made to appear for a fraudulent Supreme Court hearing over Skype in which one criminal even posed as India's chief justice. “He banged the hammer on the table twice and said ‘Order, Order, please present your case’. I thought he was actually Justice [CJ] Chandrachud as they claimed,” Oswal said.

"They do and say things in such a way that one gets manipulated and believe what they are saying is true. They used to keep me under surveillance even in the night and I was told to keep my phone on the bedside and keep Skype on. I would not get proper sleep as someone watched over me all the time,” Oswal told the newspaper.

After the staged court hearing, a copy of the order was shared on WhatsApp, directing him to transfer money to a so-called Secret Supervision Account. 

Oswal made the transactions in order to avoid being arrested. 

On August 29, he went out for a hopsital visit, and spoke to a colleague about what happened to him in the preceding two days. The colleague said it was a fraud.

"Later when I confronted the accused as they asked for more money, they threatened me with immediate arrest. They also sent a fake arrest warrant issued by ED Mumbai ordering my arrest within two hours. I said I would prefer to die in police custody but won’t transfer more money,” Oswal told the paper.

(With inputs from agencies)