A Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) employee ended his life over a suspected case of digital arrest and extortion, in his native Kelagere village, in Channapatna taluk of Ramanagara district in Karnataka, at night on July 14. The death came to light on July 15 morning. 

The deceased Kumara K., 48, had been living at BTM Layout in Bengaluru for the past 25 years. He had been working with Bescom. He was married, and the couple have an eight-year-old son. 

He has left behind a hand-written one-page note in which he accused Vikram Goswami, who claimed to be an officer of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), of threatening him and of extortion. Vikram Goswami reportedly called Kumara two weeks ago claiming to be a CBI officer. He claimed that there was an arrest warrant pending against Kumara and demanded ₹1,95,000 to evade arrest. Kumara reportedly paid up. Over a period of two weeks, Kumara claimed to have transferred ₹11 lakh in total to Vikram Goswami. When Vikram Goswami demanded another ₹2.75 lakh, Kumara could not take it any more. 

Acting on his wife Savitramma’s complaint, M. K. Doddi police have registered a case for abetting suicide against Vikram Goswami. Kumara was scared and was talking to a man in broken Hindi for the past 15 days, according to her complaint.

A senior police official said leads and the modus operandi indicate a case of digital arrest.

(Those who are in distress or having suicidal tendencies can seek help from Arogya Sahayavani Ph: 104)