NEW DELHI: Retired Chief Justice of India R M Lodha became the latest victim of cyber crime when crooks duped him of Rs 1 lakh by sending emails from the account of another retired Supreme Court judge seeking “emergency funds”.

Police are investigating whether the email ID, that of retired SC judge B P Singh, was hacked or spoofed. The emails sent to Justice Lodha claimed that Justice Singh was in urgent need of money for his cousin’s treatment. South Delhi Police filed an FIR on Saturday evening and multiple teams have been formed to investigate the high profile case.

Sources said Justice Lodha filed a complaint with the Malviya Nagar police on May 31 after which an initial probe was conducted.

The con job was executed on April 19, investigations revealed. According to the complaint filed by CJI Lodha, he used to exchange emails with Judge BP Singh often.

On April 19, he received an email from Justice Singh, sent at 1.40am. Justice Lodha checked the email at 3.30am wherein his former colleague had reportedly sought “urgent help”. The email also categorically asked the CJI to revert through mail only as Justice Singh was “not available” on phone.

Justice Lodha told police that he immediately responded to the email and got a response at 3.51am where he was told that the Singh’s cousin was suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukemia and the money was needed for his surgery.

Justice Lodha told TOI, “Justice Singh and I do arbitration together. One day, he mentioned that his email account had been hacked and his relatives had told him that they got mails from him asking for money. I said I too have sent you money.”

It was then that Justice Lodha realised that he had been duped. He had transferred Rs 1 lakh in two instalments of Rs 50,000 each to the bank account number provided by the hacker.

The email had asked Justice Lodha to transfer Rs 1 lakh into the bank account of the surgeon. The CJI was further told that the account details could be sent to him immediately if he was able to help.

Police said Justice Lodha responded to the email at 4am on April 19, asking for bank account details to transfer the money. Sources said within 10 minutes of the former CJI’s response, he got an email sharing bank account details.

Justice Lodha told the cops that the next morning he transferred Rs 1 lakh via two instalments of Rs 50,000 each at 8am. Later in the day, he confirmed the payment through email to Justice Singh’s ID.

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