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68-year-old Bhopal advocate dies by suicide after cyber fraud threats linked to terror funding

BHOPAL: Forty-one years after he performed the last rites of several people who died in the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy, a 68-year-old advocate, Shiv Kumar Verma, died by suicide at his residence in the Madhya Pradesh capital, due to threats from cyber fraudsters who claimed he would be implicated in the funding of the Pahalgam terror attack. Before hanging himself on Monday late night at his house in the Barkhedi area under Jahangirabad police station limits, Verma left behind a suicide note stating, Im ending my life, as someone has falsely opened an account in the HDFC Bank in my name and funded Pahalgam attack terrorist Asim Joji. I wont be able to bear being branded an anti-national. The same sheet of paper also mentioned that Verma had performed the last rites of several victims of the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy. According to staff at the Jahangirabad police station, who are probing the case, the primary investigation suggests the alleged role of cyber fraudsters who had threatened Verma over the phone and may also have kept him under digital arrest. The incident occurred while Vermas wife was away in Delhi. She had reportedly been calling him since Monday evening, and after receiving no response despite multiple attempts, she contacted the tenant living in the house. It was the tenant who subsequently found Verma hanging in his room. This is perhaps the first incident in Bhopal where fear induced by cyber fraudsters involved in digital arrest has resulted in a death by suicide. A senior officer from the Jahangirabad police station said the suicide note and Vermas mobile phone have been sent for detailed forensic analysis, particularly to trace and apprehend those who threatened him with false terror funding charges. According to Vermas relatives, the advocates son works in Pune, while his wife had travelled to Delhi to visit their daughter, who is married and lives in the national capital. This is the second instance in less than three weeks in Bhopal where cyber fraudsters have targeted an elderly advocate by threatening to frame them in a terror funding case. On 3 November, another aged advocate in the Kohfiza area was targeted by fraudsters who threatened him with severe action for purported involvement in funding the Pulwama attack. He was, however, saved in time from losing lakhs of rupees to those posing as anti-terror officers. On 20 November, cyber fraudsters extorted 68 lakh from a retired bank manager through digital arrest in Bhopals Shahpura area. In the same month, a retired official of a public-sector enterprise and his wife were kept under digital arrest for several days by cyber thugs, who reportedly extorted 65 lakh from them.