Two men from Mumbai, who were staying at a hotel in Sealdah, have been arrested for allegedly posing as officials of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and cheating a woman out of ₹66 lakh by threatening to arrest her in a non-existing case.

Police said the woman, a resident of Charu Market, received a call earlier this month from an automated voice that said the call was from “Trai”. It alerted her about a “criminal case” against her.

While the call was in progress, a man who identified himself as a Trai official spoke to her.

“When the woman questioned the authenticity of the call by asking for documents, the caller said he was connecting her to the Delhi cyber crime branch where he said the case was pending against her,” said an officer of Kolkata Police.

A man posing as an officer of the Delhi crime branch then started interacting with the woman telling her in detail the “charges” against her and the punishment she was facing.

At this point, the woman was convinced that a case was pending against her and she would be arrested unless she paid up.

“The woman was threatened for several hours and was warned not to contact any of her relatives or family. She was asked to pay as early as possible to avoid being arrested,” the officer said.

Under the threat of “digital arrest”, the woman ended up paying ₹66.27 lakh to the swindlers.

Later, she realised that she had been duped and lodged a police complaint.

The police tracked the phone from where the call was made to Sealdah. The trail led the cops to two men “operating” from a hotel room in Sealdah.

The police identified the accused as Dhanaji Jagannath Shinde, 36, and Vinod Kondiba Pawar, 40, both from Mumbai.

The police said the money the south Calcutta woman paid was transferred to a current account belonging to Shinde.

“Shinde appears to be the mastermind. The other person is his associate,” said an officer of Charu Market police station.

Three mobile phones, a pre-activated SIM card, some account details and bank documents were seized from the accused persons.

Senior officers of the cyber crime cell of Kolkata Police said online swindlers are using the threat of “digital arrest” as a weapon to scare their targets and force them into paying money.

The majority of the cyber fraud cases reported to law agencies in Bengal are related to “digital arrests”, police officers said.