New Delhi: Cybercrooks on Sunday targeted former Chief Justice of India RM Lodha and cheated him of Rs 1 lakh. 

According to the police, the crooks demanded 1 lakh rupees from Lodha by sending an email from hacked email id of another retired justice. Lodha, a resident of South Delhi's Panchsheel Park reached out to Cyber Cell office following the incident. 

In his complaint, he said that he used to regularly correspond via emails with his friend and colleague, Justice (retd) BP Singh. "I, on April 19, received a mail from the email ID of BP Singh that he required the immediate help of Rs 1 lakh for the treatment of his cousin brother as he (Singh) is unavailable over the phone. I immediately deposited Rs 1 lakh online in two transactions at the given account number," he added.

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Meanwhile, a senior police officer claimed that when Justice Singh regained control of his email on May 30, he sent a mail regarding the hacking of his account on April 18-19 to his contact list.

"When Lodha read the email sent by BP Singh regarding his hacked email, he immediately disclosed that he was cheated and duped of Rs 1 lakh by the unknown hacker."On the suggestion of Singh, Lodha approached the Delhi Police and filed a complaint. We have registered a case under various sections of the IPC including cheating and the IT Act. A probe is on to identify the accused hacker," the officer said.

There have been several such cases where hackers group have hacked an email id and sent an email to the contact list asking monetary help. 

However, the Delhi police have failed to catch any big gang involved in the crime yet. 

(With inputs from agencies)