Scams over the telephone have led to several people suffering financial losses, but this may be the first instance in which one such attempted fraud allegedly cost a woman her life. 

On Monday, Malti Verma, 58, a teacher in a government school in Agra, received a WhatsApp call from a man whose display photo was that of a police official. The man told the teacher that her college-going daughter had been caught in a sex racket. 

Ms Verma’s son, Dipanshu, said the call came around noon and the man asked her to deposit Rs 1 lakh in a particular account to ensure that her daughter came back home safe and no case was filed.

The man also allegedly told Ms Verma that he was calling her to ensure that the family did not have to go through the trauma of having their daughter implicated in a sex racket-related case.

“My mother taught in a government girls junior high school in Agra’s Achnera. After she got the call from the man, she panicked and called me, and I asked her for 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. She was still very anxious and started feeling unwell,” said Dipanshu.

“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.

Additional Commissioner of Police Mayank Tiwari said the family filed a complaint on Thursday. 

“The family has complained that Ms Verma died of a heart attack. The cause for this, her husband has said, was that she had received a call stating that her daughter had been caught in a sex racket and the caller had demanded Rs 1 lakh from her. She got very worried because of this and died 15 minutes after she reached home. She was cremated on Tuesday and we have received the complaint today. We are investigating the number from which the call came and will take action,” Mr Tiwari said.

(With inputs from Naseem Ahmad)

A woman who was gunned down with her husband and two young daughters – just one and six years old – at their home in Amethi on Thursday had filed a police complaint against a man less than two months ago in which she had said that he had threatened to kill her on more than one occasion and would be responsible if anything happened to her or her family.

Poonam Bharti, her husband Sunil Kumar and their two daughters were at their home in Amethi’s Bhavani Nagar when a few men barged in and shot all of them.

Police said the crime seemed premeditated and did not appear to be a case of a robbery gone wrong. They also said Bharti had filed a case of sexual harassment, threat to life and offences under the SC/ST act against one Chandan Verma in August.

NDTV has now accessed the first information report (FIR) in which Bharti said that she had gone to a hospital in Rae Bareli on August 18 with her husband to get some medicines for one of her daughters when Chandan Verma misbehaved with her.

Bharti said that when she protested, Verma slapped her and her husband and also used casteist slurs. 

“He said if you report this I will kill you. He has threatened to kill me before this as well. My family is in danger. If any incident or accident happens with me or my husband in the future, Chandan Verma will be responsible. I request you to register my report and take appropriate action,” she had said.

Police have said they are investigating whether Verma is involved in shooting Bharti and her family and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has promised strict action against the culprits.

The case is now being investigated by the UP Special Task Force (STF). 

‘At Least 5 Shots’

Ram Manohar Yadav, the owner of a medical store outside the house of Sunil Kumar, who was a teacher at a government school, said he heard at least five gunshots. 

“I don’t know how the attackers came. There is a way to enter the house from the back as well because parts of it are under construction. I did not see them coming from the front. Master sahab was a very simple person. They had been living here for two-three months,” said Mr Yadav.

(With inputs from Arun Gupta)