India, Feb. 11 -- What began as an online friendship spiralled into a two-year ordeal for a 70-year-old businessman from Worli, who was allegedly coerced into paying Rs.2.40 crore to a gang of seven women and four men, who allegedly posed as police officers, relatives of public figures and intermediaries, and threatened criminal action.

Police officers said the senior citizen was so pressured by the gang that he left India and lived in Zambia for five months in an attempt to escape the harassment, but the calls and demands followed him even there.

According to the Worli police, the alleged fraud began in January 2024 with a woman identified as Alia, whom the complainant had been chatting with on social media for a few years. "He had sha...