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Traditional crime offenders take to cyber frauds
Police had arrested Tejas Lokhande, 24, a body crime offender and Avinash Baklikar, 28, in the cyber fraud case
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The Pimpri-Chinchwad police said that there is an increasing trend of conventional criminals shifting to cyber crimes due to their growing proximity with cyber goons.
A probe into a ₹86 lakh cyber-fraud case reported last week has thrown up an interesting link between conventional crime and the growing cybercrime ecosystem.
Police had arrested Tejas Lokhande, 24, a body crime offender and Avinash Baklikar, 28, in the cyber fraud case.
Police said while Lokhande has a history of committing conventional crimes like kidnapping, Baklikar is a cyber crime goon. The duo had met and developed a close bond during their stay at Yerwada jail about a year back in separate cases. Both were released on bail about six months back.
After their release from the prison, Lokhande became an aide of Baklikar and took to committing cyber frauds.
Rohidas Pawar, deputy commissioner of police (DCP) crime, said, “The investigation has highlighted how a trend is evolving in which goons involved in conventional offences such as extortion, kidnapping, robbery and other crimes can potentially gain access to cybercrime networks through contacts made during incarceration.”
According to Pawar, some offenders, after being released on bail, take to cybercrimes because it offers the possibility of making large sums of money without the physical confrontation and risks associated with traditional offences.
The ₹86 lakh case came to light during the investigation into an online financial fraud. Police found that bank accounts were allegedly being arranged and used for routing money connected with cyber fraud. The investigation subsequently led officers to examine the background and links of the accused, including their contacts made while in jail.
Police said that this was not an isolated case.
In April this year, Pimpri-Chinchwad police invoked the first Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against nine members of a cyber criminal gang and booked them. Some of these members of the gang had a history of committing conventional crimes.
These nine members had duped a senior citizen of over ₹11 crore through a fake online trading application. During the probe, police found that the defrauded amount was routed through multiple bank accounts. Authorities have so far managed to freeze ₹2.65 crore, and efforts are ongoing to recover the remaining amount.
During the investigation, the cyber cell arrested Abhay Patil, 34, from Kolhapur, Shivtej Pote, 30, from Wagholi, and Yuvraj Mudliyar, 35, from Lohegaon, Ronny Girigoswami, 24, from Rajasthan, Prahlad Gadari, 23, from Rajasthan, Umesh Bhatt, 21, from Rajasthan, Mahesh Udchane 28, from Dahisar East, Mumbai, Rahul Maurya, 24, from Dahisar East, Mumbai, Sheikh Abdul Rashid, 26, from Chhtrapati Sambhajinagar, were arrested and found to be frequent offender in multiple cyber crime cases.
According to police, they were part of the police investigation team in which MCOCA was invoked. He said, “Some of them are on-record criminals, and after getting in contact with others they started supplying mule accounts to cyber criminals by charging certain percentages.”
Elaborating the trend, Ravikiran Nale, senior police inspector at the cyber cell, Pimpri-Chinchwad Police, said, “In a few cases we have observed that traditional criminals, after coming into contact with cyber criminals, change their path and become involved in cyber-related activities for easy money.”
In another case reported in March this year, the police unearthed a well-organised cyber fraud racket operating out of a villa in Lonavla, arresting four accused. In this case too, a couple of the accused were conventional criminals but later joined hands with the cyber goons.
Cybercrime investigators within the police are of the view that the structure of online fraud has also changed significantly. The person who cheats a victim may not be the same individual who arranges a bank account, provides a SIM card, withdraws the money or transfers the funds to another account. Such a layered structure makes it possible for people with existing criminal contacts to enter the ecosystem without directly interacting with victims.
The police investigation is therefore significant as it points to a possible convergence between traditional criminal networks and organised cybercrime, with investigators now examining whether prison contacts are helping bridge the two worlds.
