Bhopal Lawyer Dies By Suicide After Fraud Call Over Terror Links

A 68-year-old senior advocate, Shiv Kumar Verma, died by suicide at his residence in the Jahangirabad area in Madhya Pradesh's Bhopal on Monday night. 

Verma, a respected lawyer who had performed the last rites of many victims of the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy, allegedly took his life after receiving phone calls linking him to terror funding.

The incident is emerging as the first known suicide in Bhopal triggered by threats of cyber fraudsters indulging in "digital arrest" and fake terror charges.

According to the Jahangirabad police, Verma lived in the Barkhedi area and was alone at home when the incident occurred around 7:30 pm. His wife was in Delhi visiting their married daughter, while his son works in Pune.

His wife kept calling him throughout the evening, but received no response. When she called the tenant living on the same property, the tenant rushed to check, only to find Verma hanging in his room, prompting immediate police action. The advocate was declared dead at the hospital.

Police recovered a handwritten suicide note that exposed the harrowing mental trauma inflicted on the elderly lawyer.

In the note, Verma wrote that he had received a phone call from an unknown man claiming that his name had surfaced in a terror plot near Delhi's Red Fort. He was told that an account in his name was used to fund the Pahalgam terror attack, allegedly sending money to a terrorist named Asim Joji. He feared he would be arrested as an "anti-national."

His note read, "I am ending my life. Someone has falsely opened an account in HDFC Bank in my name and funded the Pahalgam attack terrorist Asim Joji. I cannot bear being branded an anti-national."

On the same page, he also wrote that he had performed the last rites of several victims of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy 41 years ago, a line that makes the case even more tragic.

Police believe Verma was a victim of cyber criminals who specialise in digital arrest scams, where victims are threatened, isolated, and mentally manipulated into compliance.

Jahangirabad police officials probing the case said, "Primary investigation suggests this was the work of cyber fraudsters. He was threatened over phone calls and may have been kept in a state of digital arrest."

Verma's mobile phone and the suicide note have been sent for forensic analysis, and efforts are underway to trace the fraudsters who made the threat calls.

Shockingly, this is the second case in three weeks involving cyber thugs threatening elderly advocates in Bhopal with terror-funding accusations. On November 3, an advocate in Koh-e-Fiza was targeted with fake charges of funding the Pulwama attack. He narrowly avoided losing lakhs of rupees.On November 20, cyber criminals extorted ~CHECK~68 lakh from a retired bank manager in Shahpura through digital arrest. In another case, a retired PSU officer and his wife were held in digital arrest for days and lost Rs 65 lakh to fraudsters.

Police have registered a case and launched a full-scale probe. Forensic experts are analysing Verma's call records, bank details, and digital history to unmask the cyber criminals who drove him to his death.