Devika Armugam Pandaram, 38, took her life after discovering her bank account was involved in a widening cyberfraud investigation spanning several Indian states, highlighting the risks faced by innocents caught in online crime networks.
Devika Armugam Pandaram, 38, a resident of Dombivli in Thane district, died by suicide on 25 August after discovering that her bank account had been drawn into a widening cyberfraud probe, according to police and local reports. Officials said her Bank of Maharashtra account had allegedly been used in online fraud, turning what began as an attempt to help a friend into a legal nightmare.
Police in Rajasthan’s Churu district had visited her home on 8 August and served her a notice to appear for questioning in a case registered under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act. According to reports in The Times of India and other Indian outlets, Pandaram later approached the Thane police commissionerate for clarification and was told that multiple cases had been registered against her in several states, including Haryana, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.
Those reports said the prospect of travelling across the country for questioning left her deeply distressed. Police have registered an accidental death case and begun an investigation into the circumstances. The incident has also highlighted a growing problem in cybercrime cases: bank accounts lent or handed over to others can quickly become linked to wider fraud networks, leaving the account holder to face lengthy scrutiny even when they did not organise the offence.
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