An 82-year-old textile magnate claims to have been swindled out of ₹7 crore by a bunch of conmen who posed as federal investigators probing a money laundering racket and then conspired to conduct a fake online Supreme Court hearing with one fraudster impersonating Supreme Court chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud.

Ludhiana-based Vardhman group chairman S.P. Oswal said in a police complaint that he complied after the court ordered him to pay the amount into an account as part of the investigation.

The bizarre con, however, stretches credulity as Oswal is a well-established industrialist who manages Vardhman Textiles, a listed company, that clocked consolidated revenues of Rs 9504.68 crore and earned a net profit of Rs 640.59 crore in 2023-24.

Duping someone by holding an online court hearing is almost unheard of and shows how incredibly innovative crooks have become in perpetrating frauds.

“They made a Skype call regarding the court hearing ... as per a Supreme Court order I was directed to release all my funds into a secret supervision account,” Oswal told police.

Oswal told NDTV that the fraudsters had claimed that an account in his name was linked to the financial shenanigans attributed to Naresh Goyal, former chairman of Jet Airways who was arrested last year in a money laundering probe.

They claimed that the account had been opened using Oswal’s Aadhaar details and that his document may have been misused. According to Oswal, the fraudsters said he was a suspect till their probe was over and that he was in their digital custody.

Oswal claimed in the interview that he was under their video surveillance round the clock.

Two people — Atanoo Chaudhary and Anand Kumar Chaudhary — were subsequently arrested from Guwahati on the basis of a complaint filed by the industrialist and a sum of ₹5.25 crore had since been recovered, which is being touted as the largest recovery so far in such cases.

A PTI report said Oswal had later discussed the matter with his manager who cast doubts on the legitimacy of the claims. They then contacted police, leading to the uncovering of the scam. During the investigation, the police also found that five other people were involved in the case. Efforts are on to trace them.

Back in May, the Centre had warned the public about a rising number of cases of "digital arrests" made by cyber criminals wearing police uniforms or posing as law enforcement officers from studios modelled on police stations or government offices. More than 1,000 Skype IDs involved in such activities had been blocked at that time.

The former Jet Airways chairman was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate a year ago in a money-laundering case. The ED had accused him of siphoning off loans worth ₹538.62 crore given to Jet Airways by Canara Bank.

In May, the Bombay High Court had granted Goyal bail on medical grounds. His advocate had told the court that doctors had advised the former Jet Airways founder to stay at home with his family to cope with cancer surgery.