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Punjab: Kapurthala man among 38 held in interstate cyber fraud
The group defrauded victims in the US and Canada by hacking devices and offering fake software solutions
Police have busted an interstate cyber fraud racket and arrested 38 people, including women, from a resort in Phagwara during a raid on Friday.
The raid was conducted jointly by teams of Kapurthala cyber cell and city police station, Phagwara, on Thursday night, they said. The police have recovered 40 laptops, 67 mobile phones and ₹10 lakh in cash during the raid.
The arrested accused were taken to Kapurthala in a bus. The accused belong to Punjab, New Delhi, Nagaland, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal, Haryana, Odisha, Jharkhand and Maharashtra, police said.
According to police sources, the group was defrauding people in the United States and Canada on the pretext of offering software solutions. They would hack electronic devices of people.
“Preliminary investigation reveals that the racket was operated by a local individual, Amrinder Singh alias Sabhi Tohri, who had leased the resort premises and engaged several people to manage the illegal call centre. He is linked to Suraj from New Delhi, who in turn is connected to a suspect named Shen from Kolkata. Transactions were primarily conducted through Bitcoin, and hawala channels have also been found involved,” Punjab DGP Gaurav Yadav said.
According to an FIR registered in the early hours of Friday, the arrests were made under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including cheating, and the Information Technology Act.
“Further investigation is underway to expose the full nexus, including the backward and forward linkages of the network,” the DGP added.
Meanwhile, Kapurthala SSP Gaurav Toora said the details of the case will be shared on Saturday.
