Mother of 2 dies after ‘digital arrest’ blackmail, video calls by fake cop during funeral reveal scam

BIJNOR: A 28-year-old woman allegedly died by suicide in Bijnor after cyber fraudsters posing as law enforcement officials harassed, blackmailed and threatened her with “digital arrest”, a scam that came to light only when repeated WhatsApp calls came to her phone during funeral preparations, police said.

Monika Devi, a resident of Faridpur Bhogi village, was found dead in her room on Monday night while her two daughters, aged 9 and 11, slept nearby. The children alerted family members the next morning after they found her unresponsive, and the family initially began preparations for cremation without informing police. At the cremation ground, Monika’s phone kept ringing. A relative answered one video call and saw a man in a police uniform who claimed to be a crime branch officer. He allegedly demanded to speak with Monika and threatened legal action if she did not respond. Police later recovered a one-and-a-half-page diary note in which Monika allegedly wrote about threats and blackmail. Family members said her fear was visible in the note and believed the cyber criminals had intimidated her to the point where she could not fully describe what had happened. She wrote that a man had been harassing and blackmailing her for a long time.

In the note to her husband, Monika wrote that she could not lie to him and wanted to tell him many things. She said a man had been troubling her for a long time and had started blackmailing her. She expressed her love for her husband, asked him to forgive her and take care of their children, and apologised to her parents and siblings. Family said Monika had studied till Class 9 and believed cyber criminals may have targeted her because of her limited education. Her husband Randhir Singh filed a complaint on Wednesday, after which investigators started tracing cybercrime network through chats, call records and phone data. Police said an examination of Monika’s phone showed t scammers had contacted her on WhatsApp from multiple numbers.