The retired judge complained that after clicking a link sent via a message asking for his PAN card details, ₹49,998 was siphoned off from his bank account.
On December 18, former Bombay High Court Chief Justice RD Dhanuka took action by filing a First Information Report (FIR) with the Mumbai Police’s Cybercell after falling victim to a cyber fraud scheme that resulted in the loss of approximately ₹50,000.
The FIR pertains to violations of Sections 419 and 420 (related to cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 66D (pertaining to cheating by personation through a computer source) of the Information Technology Act.
Justice Dhanuka’s complaint details an incident in which he received a message on his mobile phone from an unknown sender on November 27. The message contained a hyperlink claiming that his account would be marked inactive if he failed to update the PAN Card information associated with his nationalized bank.
In response to this message, the judge followed the provided instructions, clicked on the link, and proceeded to enter his PAN card information before submitting the form. Shortly thereafter, he received a phone call from a representative of his bank, inquiring whether he had authorized a transaction amounting to ₹49,998.
Upon denying any involvement in such a transaction, the bank representative informed Justice Dhanuka that the mentioned amount had been debited from his account, potentially indicating a case of cyber fraud. In light of this, the bank representative advised him to report the incident to the police.
Consequently, Justice Dhanuka lodged a complaint with the Colaba police station on December 18, which led to the formal filing of the FIR.
