A 58-year-old government school teacher in Agra died due to cardiac arrest on Monday after she allegedly got a call from cyber fraudsters who told her that her daughter was caught in a sex scandal, according to the police.
The Agra police said Malti Verma got the call on her WhatsApp number at around 12 pm on Monday when she was at her school. The man wearing a peak cap and a khaki uniform told her he was a police officer and that her daughter was caught in a sex racket and hung up.
“Fifteen minutes later, Verma received another call and the man told her that she wanted to save her daughter and the family, she will have to deposit Rs 1 lakh in a specific account,” said Mayank Tiwari, Additional Commissioner of Police, Agra.
Tiwari said the woman called her daughter but after she did not take her call, she called her son. The woman’s son said he asked her about the number from which she had received the call. “When I checked the number, I found that it had a +92 prefix and I told her it was a scam,” the son said.
“I reassured her and also told her that I had spoken to my sister, who was in college and was fine. My mother’s health kept deteriorating, however, and when she came back from school, she said she was feeling some pain. We gave her something to drink but things got worse and she died,” he added.
According to Tiwari, it was the first such case in Agra. “At around 2.30 pm, she returned home and saw her daughter. By 2.45, her condition worsened… and died 15 minutes after she reached home,” he said.
“This was the first such case in Agra. A complaint was filed by the family on Thursday in this regard. We are investigating the matter. We are investigating the number from which the call came and will take action,” he added.
The woman was cremated on Tuesday, said the police.
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