NRI doctor couple held hostage online, cheated of nearly ₹15 crore in Delhi cyber scam

An elderly NRI doctor couple in Delhi was digitally imprisoned, psychologically broken and robbed of nearly ₹15 crore in one of the most brazen cyber frauds the capital has seen in recent years.

Dr Om Taneja and his wife Dr Indira Taneja, both retired UN doctors who spent almost five decades serving in the United States before returning to India in 2015, were trapped in what police describe as a “digital arrest” from December 24, 2025, to January 10, 2026 — a 17-day ordeal that ended with their life savings wiped out.

Fake law, real fear

The fraud began with a phone call from men posing as law-enforcement officers. Speaking with official authority, they told the couple that multiple criminal cases had been registered against them under stringent laws such as the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and that they were being investigated for money laundering and national security violations.

Arrest warrants, the callers warned, were imminent.

From that moment on, the couple was placed under constant surveillance through round-the-clock video calls. The scammers instructed them not to leave their home, not to speak to anyone and not to contact police — a psychological lockdown that Delhi Police now call a “digital arrest.”

Money drained, one transfer at a time

During this period, 77-year-old Dr Indira Taneja was coerced into transferring huge sums of money to eight different bank accounts. Some transactions were for ₹2 crore, others for over ₹2.1 crore, eventually adding up to ₹14.85 crore.

The criminals controlled every step.

Whenever Dr Indira stepped out of the house or tried to make a call, they would immediately launch a video call on her husband’s phone to monitor her movements. Before each visit to the bank, she was given a scripted explanation to tell bank officials if they questioned the unusually large transfers.

Even when a bank manager grew suspicious, she repeated the story the scammers had drilled into her.

The lie collapses at the police station

The fraud finally unravelled on January 10, when the callers told Dr Indira that the Reserve Bank of India was about to refund the money and that she must report to her local police station to complete the formalities.

Still on a video call with the criminals, she went to the station and even allowed them to speak to the station house officer, to whom they reportedly spoke in a rude and intimidating manner.

It was only inside the police station that the truth became clear — there was no RBI refund, no legal case, and no authority behind the voices on the screen.

The couple had been robbed.

Special Cell takes over

Delhi Police has now registered a case and handed the probe to the Special Cell’s cyber unit — the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO), citing the scale, sophistication and gravity of the crime.

The couple, known for their charitable work since returning to India, is said to be in shock, having lost almost everything they saved over a lifetime of service.

What they thought was a legal process turned out to be a digital hostage drama — one that cost them nearly ₹15 crore and exposed how terrifyingly real cybercrime has become.