Kochi: Scammers posing as Mumbai Police officers attempted to extort money from actor Maala Parvathi. The accused claimed a courier in the actor's name, containing MDMA, was intercepted. The actor said she was placed under virtual arrest for an hour. "They showed me fake ID cards, pretending to be officers from Mumbai Police. They accused me of smuggling drugs to Taiwan and placed me under virtual arrest for questioning. However, I realise it was a fraud before any money exchange happened," said Maala Parvathi.
The actor said she received a call from the scammers one morning while shooting in Madurai. "The caller said a parcel had been withheld from the DHL courier service company. Having had a similar mix-up earlier, I thought the call was genuine. So, I was connected to their customer care, which informed me that my Aadhaar details had been misused to send a parcel to Taiwan.
"When I enquired for more details, they gave me the number used to send the parcel from Mumbai, the contact number and the recipient's address in Taiwan. They said the parcel contained a passport, credit card, laptop and 200 grams of MDMA. Later, they connected me to Mumbai Police," said Maala Parvathi.
The fake officers told Maala Parvathi she was the victim of a big scam which used the Aadhaar details of individuals to carry out fraud activities. "I spoke to multiple officers, including a Prakash Kumar Gundu, who even showed me his Mumbai Crime Branch ID. He told me accounts had been opened in my name in 12 states. His tone was quite convincing, and I had nothing to suspect then," she said.
It was after Prakash Kumar Gundu hung up, saying he would call the actor again, that she noticed the Asoka pillar emblem missing from his ID. "That is how I Googled and found out this was a scam. Later, when my manager tried contacting Prakash, there was no response. The scammers tried to place me under virtual arrest for almost 72 hours," she said.
Maala Parvathi, who has been in the Malayalam film industry since 2007, is known for her roles in 'Bheeshma Parvam', 'Godha', 'Take Off', 'Malik', and 'Neelathamara', among others.