Rourkela: The police in Rourkela have successfully busted a cybercrime syndicate with international links which could have severe ramifications for national security. Five persons have been arrested from different parts of the country in this connection so far, police sources said Saturday.
Speaking about the arrests, Rourkela SP Mitrabhanu Mohapatra informed that the gang’s activity was deleterious to national interest. “They were operating at international level from Cambodia,” informed the SP, who has been promoted to the rank of DIG recently.
Explaining their activities, the officer said, “They were involved in cyber slavery, stock fraud — otherwise known as pig butchery and passport forgery, and were a threat to national security through terror funding.” Rourkela police is in touch with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for further help in the case, “as they have the expertise required to further know about their antecedents”, he said.
The main accused is Ujwal Utkarsh (45), from Bhillai in Chhattisgarh, and he is helped by Sonu aka Navin Rao (35), Asperiking aka Nasim aka Md Nassimudin (45), Rio aka RNB James aka Panku (33) from Bhillai and Sandip Jain (40) from Raipur, Chattisgarh.
“Our teams went to several places and arrested them. A few more arrests will be made and a team has been sent to Chennai in this regard,” informed Mohapatra. They have been booked under cybercrime and economic offence U/S 420/419/465/471/120 (B)/34 IPC, R/W-66 (C)/66(D) of IT Act 2000.
Notably, a case of cyber fraud to the tune of Rs67,70,000 was filed December 12 last year by a Central government officer. The Prima facie investigation revealed the involvement of an international crime syndicate. Soon a team was formed under DSP Upasana Padhi and help was taken from the Indian Cyber Crime Branch under the MHA and state Crime Branch as there were many technicalities involved in the case, informed the SP. “They were part of a top-level international crime syndicate and were doing cyber slavery, pig butchery with technical expertise,” the SP said.
There were more than 210 complaints against them as per the data of JCCT Management Information Centre of MHA. There are cases filed against them in Maharashtra, Telangana, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
Ujwal and Pankaj went to Cambodia. There they stationed themselves and procured over 200 Indian SIM cards and rented bank accounts in the name of Sandip Jain. “They created a fake app called Indira Securities and persuaded people to invest through it. It convinced the people because they were showing real-time stock trading,” informed SP.
Elaborating further about their modus operandi, he said, “They would adopt pig butchery and would give the investor double the return. And once the persons get lured and invest a huge amount then they would close that account and vanish.” They use mule accounts, digital advertisements, money laundering and cross-border crime syndicate. They used the 2D/3D payment processing platforms, Western Union, USDT-Crypto Currency exchange, and PayPal, and were found to be actively involved in Telegram app for their fraudulent activities.
“I request all of you to take note of this and spread the message that one should not go for such investment activities through the Telegram app,” cautioned Mohapatra.
Md Nassimudin was involved in the Mahadev betting app scam and was arrested in 2022. Ujwal, the main accused, would frequently create betting apps through his acquaintances and was a frequent traveller to Sri Lanka, Dubai and Cambodia, informed the SP. “Our embassy in Cambodia in 2023 had issued an advisory about criminal syndicates actively involved in financial scams and cyber slavery. Ujwal was in touch with an Indian manpower supplier in Cambodia to supply freshers for setting up a suspected fake call centre in Cambodia,” further revealed the officer.
The investigation is in its nascent stage. Besides, the police have asked the SIM card operators to take note of it. Also, the banks and crypto operators have been asked to give further information.
“The head of the entire syndicate has been identified and he is a foreign national. Necessary steps will be taken at the appropriate level,” informed SP.
Initial investigation reveals that the gang has swindled over Rs15 crore. Besides, another fraud to the tune of Rs20 lakh in cryptocurrency has come to notice.
PNN