Prominent Poet in Lucknow Held For 'Digital Arrest' By Con Artists for Six Hours

Prominent progressive writer and poet from the city, Naresh Saxena, was detained for six long hours in his room under digital arrest by cybercriminals posing as Lucknow CBI personnel, according to police sources. The con artists spent hours listening to the old writer's poetry, even urging him to recite couplets by Mirza Ghalib and Faiz and lavishing praise on him. Their goal was to deceive him by threatening to arrest him in connection with money laundering. 

Fortunately, worried family members intervened through a video conversation after six hours of this "digital house arrest," preventing the cyberthugs from completing their crimes. A complaint was then lodged by the writer at the police station in Gomti Nagar. 

According to reports, the writer received a video call on his cell phone on July 7, around 3 p.m., just as he was ready to depart for a poetry session. The writer was questioned whether he had misplaced his Aadhar card by the man on the other end. "He then told me that it had been used to create an account in Mumbai, that it had been used to launder crores of dollars worth of money, and that a police station in Mumbai had been notified of the incident. Subsequently, he identified himself as CBI Inspector Rohan Sharma and declared that I was the subject of an arrest warrant. But he said if I helped with the inquiry, he would work to get me freed quickly because I was an old man and appeared like a kind man. If not, I might have a lengthy prison sentence," Saxena said.

Subsequently, the guy authenticated the writer's Aadhar card and inquired about the quantity of money in each bank account, the frequency of transactions, investments, income, and income tax returns.