In a significant stride against cybercrime, a joint team of East District and Crime Branch, Guwahati under the leadership of ACP, Basistha apprehended nine individuals on Thursday in connection with various cyber offenses.
The arrests took place in the Bhetapara locality, with all suspects traced to the URBANICA HOMESTAY on Chandra Choudhury Road.
The suspects reserved three rooms at the specified homestay from April 10, using aliases associated with cyber criminals from West Bengal. Of the detainees, Rupam Goswami, Dipak Singh, Feroz Khan, and Shlok Kumar were confirmed to be from West Bengal, whereas the remaining four were from Assam (their identities remain unconfirmed). Investigations have unveiled that this collective orchestrated a cybercrime network, primarily targeting victims in Assam.
Upon the arrests, the city police seized a cache of evidence including 12(twelve) numbers of mobile phones, one HP Laptop, and several bank debit cards from the possession of detained persons.
During investigation, several bank account numbers and details are also found from the mobile phones of the detained persons.
Modus Operandi of the crime:
The arrested accused persons first identify the unsuspecting and financially weak persons and convince them to share their bank account details with the gang by promising handsome monetary returns against the money that will be routed through the bank accounts. The gang also obtains the details like ATM card and ATM PIN numbers etc so that these accounts can be operated by the gang.
Then these gang members use the accounts for transactions of huge amount of money generated through cyber financial frauds and quickly transfer out the money to other bank accounts without the knowledge of the original account holders.
Sometimes they offer the original account holder a good percentage of the fraudulently transacted amount.
After fraudulent transaction, the involved culprits withdraw the whole amount from these bank accounts instantly so that the investigating agencies can not freeze the money in these accounts.
Whenever the investigating agencies investigate such cyber financial frauds, only these accounts are found first while investigating the money trails and the genuine account holders are questioned about the transactions whereas these account holders are in the complete dark about such transactions.
Meanwhile, sustained interrogation of the picked up persons disclosed that they are involved in collecting account details through various means and use the collected bank accounts for the purpose of fraudulent transaction of illegal and huge amount of money, sometimes in the pretext of online gaming & betting app.
A cyber police station case No. 09/2024 under section 120-B/406/420/511 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) read with Section 66-D of Information Technology Act, 2000 has been formally registered at the Pan Bazar Cyber Police Station, underscoring the gravity of the offenses and the concerted effort by city police to combat such illicit activities.
The crackdown serves as a testament to the vigilance and efficacy of the Crime Branch in tackling cybercrime and upholding the rule of law in the region.
Further investigations are underway to dismantle any remaining components of the criminal network and ensure justice for the victims affected by their actions.
