Hyderabad: In a heart-wrenching incident, a 76-year-old retired govt doctor collapsed and died of a heart attack after three days of relentless harassment by cyber fraudsters posing as law enforcement officials, police said on Tuesday. The scammers extorted Rs 6.6 lakh putting her under ‘digital arrest’ and continued sending threats even after the pensioner’s death.Police said the former chief senior resident medical officer at Mamidipudi Nagarjuna Area Hospital in Malakpet was first contacted on Sept 5 through WhatsApp video calls from the number 765******2, using the Bengaluru police logo as its profile picture. The callers presented forged documents stamped with fake seals of the Supreme Court, ED, and RBI. Accusing her of human trafficking, they threatened to arrest her under National Security Act (NSA) unless she transferred money.Terrified, she wired Rs 6.6 lakh on Sept 6 from her Union Bank pension account to an ICICI Bank account linked to a shell entity in Maharashtra. The extortion did not stop. Harassment continued from another number – 983*04 – saved in her phone as “Jaishankar Sir”, with threats, fake court notices, and repeated video calls.On Sept 8, the doctor collapsed at her Madhura Nagar home with severe chest pain after 70 hours of torture. She was taken to Raja Nursing Home in Yousufguda and then Apollo Spectra Clinic in Ameerpet, where she died at 12.30pm.Her son told police that the family discovered the full extent of the harassment only after her funeral on Sept 9. “The scammers continued sending messages even after her death,” a police official quoted the complainant as saying. “They sent the last message saying ‘good morning’ on Sept 10.”Hyderabad cybercrime police have registered a case under IT Act and sections of BNS, including culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Investigators are tracking phone records and bank transactions.
