Pune Octogenarian Loses Rs 5 Lakh In Voter Card Updating Scam Accused Posed As ECI Official

(MENAFN- IANS) Pune, Oct (IANS) A person posing as an official of the Election Commission of India (ECI) cheated an 80-year-old man of Rs five lakh online under the guise of updating his voter card in Maharashtra's Pune, police said on Sunday.

A case regarding this incident has been registered at the Lakshminagar Police Station in Pune.

According to the police, the complainant, Kanjasheri Vaidyanathan Venkatesan (80), is a retired employee of an automotive manufacturing company, residing in the Yerwada area of ​​Pune. The accused called him, claiming to be from the ECI's office, and stated that he needed to update his voter card.

Subsequently, the accused instructed him to download an APK file. After the file was downloaded, the accused gained access to the victim's mobile screen, compromised his banking passwords, and fraudulently siphoned off Rs. 5 lakh.

A case has been registered at the Lakshminagar Police Station under Sections 308, 318(4), and 319(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), as well as Sections 66(D) and 66(C) of the IT Act.

The full name and address of the accused have not yet been ascertained.

Investigation into the case is currently underway, and further details are awaited, officials said.

In a similar case reported from Pune in June, a retired IT professional was allegedly duped of more than Rs 4.43 crore by fraudsters posing as investment experts on WhatsApp and Telegram.

The accused reportedly lured the victim with promises of extraordinary returns through stock market investments and displayed fictitious profits worth over Rs 26 crore on a fake online trading platform before demanding additional payments in the name of service charges.

According to the complaint, the accused repeatedly instructed him to transfer funds into various bank accounts for investment purposes.

Believing the investment opportunity to be genuine, Chaudhary allegedly transferred a total of Rs 4,43,25,000 from his IDFC Bank account into 34 separate bank accounts over a period of time.

Encouraged by the displayed returns, the complainant sought to withdraw the amount. However, according to the complaint, the accused informed him that withdrawals could only be processed after the payment of a service charge equivalent to five per cent of the displayed profits.

The victim was allegedly informed that a payment exceeding Rs 1 crore was mandatory before any withdrawal request could be processed and that no amount would be released without the service charge being deposited first.

It was at this stage, according to the complaint, that the victim began to suspect that he had become the target of a sophisticated fraud scheme.

MENAFN11102026000231011071ID1111789815