For 12 days, a 79-year-old Kandivli resident lived in fear of being ‘arrested’ after fraudsters allegedly posing as Delhi Police kept him under constant pressure through WhatsApp video calls, accused him of aiding a terror-extortion racket, and forced him to transfer nearly Rs 9 lakh. The Charkop police have registered an FIR and begun tracing the callers.

The ordeal began on October 3 when the senior citizen received a WhatsApp call from a man introducing himself as Head Constable Gupesh Kumar. The caller claimed the victim’s SIM would be blocked within two hours because it had been used by a man named Mohammad Nawab Malik in an extortion case. “He was told not to tell anyone or he would be arrested,” the police said.