GURGAON: Cyber criminals operating out of villages referred to as ‘new Jamtara’ have been linked to 27,798 complaints and 1,346 FIRs registered in all Indian states and Union Territories barring Lakshadweep and netted at least Rs 100 crore by swindling people who they made contact with either online or over the phone.
And these are just the first estimates of the scale of fraud perpetrated from 40 villages in Nuh, Bharatpur, Alwar and Mathura – all located near the Haryana-Rajasthan-UP trijunction – that emerged as one of India’s biggest cybercrime hubs since the Covid pandemic broke out in 2020.
The findings of a two-week probe were released at a press conference by Haryana Police on Wednesday, based on digital trails of 65 suspects who were arrested after raids at 300 locations in Nuh villages on April 27 and 28. Investigators said they were on the lookout for 250 more suspects. By this estimate, those in custody form just a quarter of the network that has so far been deciphered. The actual network is likely much bigger.
“In our investigation after the raids, the suspects have revealed the names of 250 others who are being identified and will be arrested soon. Of this, 211 are from Haryana. The rest are from Rajasthan and UP. Most of the accused are absconding and teams have been formed to nab them,” Nuh SP Varun Singla told TOI.
He added: “Our teams have been keeping vigil. We had kept track of all possible ways out and mapped the accused’s houses from drones.”
At 7,645, most of the complaints traced back to the cyber criminals in custody were from UP, followed by Rajasthan (3,225) and Telangana (2,047). Nearly 2,000 complaints came from Delhi. Twenty-five were recorded in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands too.
The money allegedly accumulated by the suspects was routed into 219 accounts, many of those with leading banks. The accounts were allegedly created with forged Aadhaar cards of those the suspects had swindled online.
“The investigation revealed that other than 219 accounts of private and public sector banks, 140 UPI accounts were used. These accounts were mostly activated online by using the identities of victims after getting their Aadhaar and PAN card numbers and mobile numbers, among other details. Apart from this, 347 SIM cards activated from Haryana, West Bengal, Assam, Rajasthan, UP, Bihar, Odisha, MP, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, North-east, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka circles were also unearthed,” Singla said.
Located along the borders of three states, the region equated with Jharkhand’s Jamtara for its reputation as a cybercrime hotspot is nestled in the foothills of the Aravalis and is among the most backward areas of the country.
TOI has previously reported that the cyber criminals are mostly unemployed youngsters. Many of them are trained in phishing techniques for sessions that cost Rs 10,000-Rs 15,000. Armed with a smartphone and multiple SIM cards to avoid leaving a trail, they offer a handful of baits such as work-from-home job offers and extortion rackets.
On the night of April 27, around 5,000 Haryana cops simultaneously charged into 300 locations across 14 villages of Nuh. They detained 125 youngsters, of which 65 were arrested and 16 FIRs registered against them.