In a major breakthrough, the Cyber Crime cell of the PunjabPolice on Tuesday, arrested six hackers from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh forhacking the Facebook account of the Chief Principal Secretary to Chief MinisterPunjab Suresh Kumar.
The arrested persons have been identified as NarendraSingh, Gulaab Singh, Bhaag Singh and Raman, all residents of Rajasthan whileDinesh and Rahul of Madhya Pradesh. One accused is still at large. The accusedpersons were also operating in the states including Punjab, Haryana and UP.
The police have recovered various ATM cards, cash, sims anda POS Machine were recovered from accused persons.
Divulging the details, Director-cum-ADGP Bureau ofInvestigation Arpit Shukla said that the accused persons had created a fake Facebookaccount on the name of Chief Principal Secretary to Chief Minister PunjabSuresh Nangia and defrauding people by asking for money pretending to be him.
He said that following information about hacking of thefacebook account of the Chief Principal Secretary Suresh Kumar, DGP PunjabDinkar Gupta immediately formed three teams led by Inspector Gurcharan Singh,Sub-Inspector Alamjit Singh Sidhu and Sub-Inspector Gaganpreet Singh under thesupervision of Assistant Inspector General of Police, State Cyber Crime, PunjabInderbir Singh and dispatched to UP, Rajasthan and MP. Entire operation wassupervised by AIG State Cyber Crime Inderbir Singh and DSP State Cyber CrimeSamarpal Singh.
Shukla said that the arrest of six cyber criminals wouldhelp in resolving similar cases related to Facebook hacking, OLX / Bank fraudsand host of other cyber related crimes.
He said that investigations revealed that the accusedDinesh and Rahul from Madhya Pradesh, the nephews of Madan Lal who supplied theIdentity proofs of Madan Lal to open a bank account in his (Madan Lal’s) nameusing his ID Proofs and usurp the fraudulently obtained money. The cybercriminals of MP, Haryana, UP, Delhi and Rajasthan are intrinsically linked witheach other and operate across different states, he added.
Director BOI added that the accused moved in threedifferent states of Haryana, UP and Rajasthan as their primary base is locatedat the tri-junction of these three states. Furthermore, this team located thewhereabouts of the accused Narender Singh in whose account the ill-gotten moneywas deposited and arrested him from Bharatpur in Rajasthan.
“On further probe, another gang member Gulaab Singh wasapprehended which led to the disclosure of a full scale racket being run in thearea where ATM cards were rented out from various people or even under fakeidentities by procuring fake ID cards to open bank accounts,” Shukla saidadding that then these bank accounts were used to siphon off the money fromvarious scams including OLX scam, Facebook scam, sex scam and any type ofillicit money is siphoned off using a channel of these accounts.
He said that the connivance of some bank employees in theentire racket can also not be ruled out.
He said that the further probing into the case led toarrestof Bhaag Singh and Raman Kumar, who were the kingpin in the money circulationof such rackets as they provide the ATM cards, sim cards and ID proof to thefraudsters, who hire their services for a 10% cut in the fraudulently obtainedmoney withdrawn through his money siphoning channel. Sub Inspector Vikas Bhatiaplayed a crucial role in analysis and reaching the targets.
Meanwhile, the case has been registered under sections 170,419, 420, 506, 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 66, 66-C, 66-D of theIT Act at Police Station State Cyber Crime.