New Delhi, Jan 11 (PTI) Not informing police was their biggest mistake, rued Om Taneja on Sunday after he and his wife lost Rs 14.85 crore following an incident of digital arrest.

Om Taneja (81) and his wife Indira (77), a doctor, were placed under digital arrest for more than 15 days by cyber fraudsters who impersonated officials from telecom and law enforcement agencies.

The elderly couple living in south Delhi's Greater Kailash says not informing police about their ordeal was a grave mistake.

"The cyber fraudsters repeatedly threatened us with arrest and serious consequences," Om Taneja told PTI.

The fraud was perpetrated between December 24 and January 9, during which the couple was forced to remain on audio and video calls continuously and coerced into transferring large sums of money to multiple bank accounts in the name of verification, police said.

An e-FIR has been registered and the cyber crime unit of the Delhi Police has taken up the investigation.

Police said the couple had returned to India after working for decades in the United States and was residing in Greater Kailash since 2016. Their children are settled abroad. The accused exploited the couple's circumstances -- isolation, age and medical conditions -- to intimidate and psychologically control them.

Narrating her ordeal, Indira Taneja said around noon on December 24, she received an audio call from a person claiming to be a Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) official.

"He told me that my telephone number was being disconnected because obscene calls were made from it and that 26 people had filed complaints," she said, adding that the cyber crooks also accused the couple of being involved in money laundering.

She said she told the caller that the phone number mentioned by him was not hers. "Despite that, he said arrest warrants were issued against me and an FIR was registered in Maharashtra," she said. The caller also claimed that the case was being transferred to the Colaba Police in Mumbai.

Soon after, the caller switched to the video mode.

"A man named Vikrant Singh Rajput appeared on the screen wearing a police uniform. I could see police insignia behind him. He told me I was involved in money laundering," the elderly woman said.

The man claimed that a bank account was opened in her name at a Canara Bank branch in Mumbai and that huge sums of money had passed through it.

"He showed me a photograph of a man named Naresh Goyal and asked me if I knew him. I told him I had never seen this person in my life," she said.

She said the fraudsters repeatedly claimed that her fingerprints and thumb impressions were found while opening the alleged bank account and insisted that the matter involved national security.

"They said a fraud of Rs 500 crore had taken place and that since I had returned from the US to serve the nation, it had become a national-security issue," the woman said.

The accused asked her to come to Mumbai immediately, warning her that arrest was unavoidable.

"I told them that my husband had undergone surgery and was still under treatment at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. He walks with a walker and that we live all by ourselves here," she said.

The fraudsters then came up with the "verification process", assuring her that it was the only way to avoid arrest. They also told them not to inform anyone -- not friends, not neighbours, not even their children in the US.

Indira Taneja said the threats soon escalated.

"They said this Naresh Goyal had people everywhere and if he found out that a suspect was identified, our lives could be in danger. They told me not to step outside the house," she said.

"When our driver came to show an X-ray report, they asked whose voice it was and warned me not to give him any hint, saying he could also be involved," she added.

The fraudsters kept insisting that it was a confidential national-security issue and that breaking secrecy would amount to a serious crime against the country. They showed visuals of SIM cards, Aadhaar cards and other documents to the elderly couple and told them that their identities might have been misused.

The Tanejas were then instructed to transfer money from their bank accounts for verification.

"They kept demanding money -- Rs 2 crore, Rs 2.1 crore, Rs 2.5 crore. The phone or the video call remained active almost throughout the day. I was digitally arrested from December 24 noon till January 9 morning," the woman said.

The fraudsters also coached the couple on what to tell bank officials to avoid suspicion. They told them to say they are making investments or becoming trustees of foundations. Sometimes they sent cheque-deposit details, sometimes photographs of cheques. In all, the couple made eight transfers.

"The first amount was about Rs 1.99 crore. Almost every demand was of around Rs 2 crore. Altogether, they took Rs 14.85 crore from us. We have lost all of our life's savings now," she said.

The couple was also forced to prematurely withdraw mutual funds worth nearly Rs 2 crore, leading to significant financial losses.

Indira Taneja said they believed that the entire process was genuine police verification.

"When all our money was gone, they told us we would get a refund through the Reserve Bank of India and that there were stamps of the Supreme Court on the papers," she said.

On January 8, she was told that her verification was done but her husband's was 97 per cent complete. The fraudsters then demanded another Rs 50 lakh.

Om Taneja said the fraudsters spoke to him daily and appeared friendly.

"They discussed engineering, environment, religion and Vedanta," he said.

A former student of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, Om Taneja worked in the US for 48 years, including stints with the United Nations and the federal government.

"We retired in 2014 and returned to India," he said.

The fraud came to light on January 9 when the calls suddenly stopped and the couple approached police.

"We were told by the SHO that we were under digital arrest and that is when we realised what had happened," the elderly man said. "Not informing police earlier was our biggest mistake," he lamented. PTI BM RC