Pune, Aug 13 (PTI) Police have arrested a social media influencer for his alleged role in a ‘digital arrest’ scam in which Rs 10.74 crore was extorted from an 82-year-old Pune resident, an official said on Thursday.
Rohan Jadhav (26), a resident of Pimple Nilakh in Pune who is a ‘reel-star’ (known for his Instagram reels), was arrested by Cyber Police Station officials, the official said.
Between January 23 and January 31, 2026, unidentified persons used the 82-year-old complainant’s Aadhaar card to open an account in Canara Bank.
Posing as CBI officers, the accused called the senior citizen, and claimed that this account was linked to the cases against Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal. The account was being used for illegal transactions, and he and his family members would be arrested, the fraudsters threatened.
Under the pretext of keeping his money “safe”, they forced the complainant into transferring all his investments to certain bank accounts. He ended up transferring a total of Rs 10,74,65,000.
During the investigation, police found that the money was subsequently diverted to 5,436 bank accounts.
On January 30, 2026, Rs 75 lakh was deposited into a Yes Bank account. Later, Rs 6.5 lakh was further transferred from Yes Bank to three Bank of Maharashtra accounts.
Based on technical analysis, information from the cyber crime portal and CCTV footage, police arrested Harshad Subhash Dhantole (24) and Samarth Suresh Deshmukh (24), both from Pune, Amar Attargi (24) from Solapur, and Delhi resident Pranav Karansingh Arya.
Jadhav, a science graduate hailing from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, was allegedly the main associate of Dhantole and Deshmukh and was in touch with the suspected international handlers in Hong Kong, according to police.
After scrutinising his bank transactions, financial dealings and links with the other accused, he was arrested.
So far, police have succeeded in freezing Rs 1.34 crore of the extorted amount. Further investigation is underway. PTI SPK KRK
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